Worker Fatigue: How this Could Compromise Workplace Safet in Ashburn

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As with many employees, you have probably experienced sleepless nights that resulted in tired moments on your job the following day. Going to work while fatigued can cause you to lose focus or misunderstand directions. Fatigue can increase your chances of making mistakes on the job and have severe side effects. Indeed, experts say that a lot of work-related accidents occur due to sleep problems. Should you be in this kind of accident, you need to consult with an Ashburn workers’ comp lawyer to know if you are eligible for compensation. 

Employee fatigue can be a result of working long hours as encouraged by employers. Sometimes, it can happen when employers do not enact safety standards to prevent fatigue-related accidents in the workplace. Keep reading to know the reason you must be careful when you go to work while feeling fatigued:

The Risk of Working While Feeling Fatigued

A lot of employees do not mind working hard to impress their employers or earn more money. However, they may not know how serious fatigue can be. Symptoms of fatigue include headaches, impaired judgment, slowed response times, and dizziness. These symptoms can affect your effectiveness and performance on the job. For instance, if you are an assembly worker and you have a slow response time, you will then have a lower output, which also impacts the individuals down the chain. 

In addition, this can become dangerous. If you have impaired judgment, you may not be able to make the right decisions like how to safely operate heavy machinery or wear safety gear. Should you fall asleep in such situations, you may sustain injuries.

Impact of Fatigue on Your Safety at Work

Feeling fatigued can also make you feel embarrassed. For some people, fatigue is a sign of weakness or laziness. With this perception, workers who are very tired to do their jobs properly may ignore the signs of overtiredness and choose to continue with their job. Unfortunately, this can result in mistakes, possibly compromising the safety of other workers. Let us say a fatigued employee is scheduled to drive an executive to a meeting and ends up causing a car accident and injuring everyone inside the car. Obviously, fatigue contributed to the accident and the injuries sustained and the driver could have prevented it if they admitted they were too tired to get behind the wheel. 

There are many ways fatigue impacts workplace safety. If you sustained injuries in a workplace accident, you may be entitled to compensation. Discuss your options with a skilled lawyer.