Fatigue and wellbeing: An interview with the HSE

Fatigue has long been recognised as a safety risk in port environments, but increasingly its connection to mental health is also being recognised, particularly in relation to shift work. Fatigue does not only affect physical alertness; it influences concentration, emotional regulation, decision-making and the ability to cope with pressure.

As part of this year’s Mental Health in Ports campaign, PSS health, safety and environment technician, Umayya Rahman, spoke with HM HSE Inspector Nicola Jaynes, about how fatigue should be understood and managed across all organisational levels. A consistent message emerged: fatigue is not a single condition to measure, but a risk to be designed out wherever possible, to protect the wellbeing of the workforce.

Why fatigue is so difficult to measure

“One of the challenges with fatigue is that it doesn’t look the same for everyone,” Nicola says. “The same worker may experience fatigue differently depending on factors such as workload, shift patterns, home life, sleep quality, diet, or even the time of day. A worker may appear physically capable but still be struggling mentally by feeling overwhelmed, distracted or emotionally drained.

“The HSE looks at it as a whole round of how you actually can improve and reduce fatigue rather than what fatigue is as an item or a thing, because it’ll be different for one person to the next.

“Additionally, while early morning hours, particularly between 6am and 8am, are widely recognised as higher-risk periods, fatigue can also occur during daytime shifts or after long, demanding tasks.”

Therefore, instead of trying to ‘prove’ fatigue, The HSE encourages focus on prevention, recognition and conversation – treating fatigue like any other risk that needs to be reduced through planning and support.

Planning and organisational management

Fatigue risk is shaped primarily by how work is organised. Long shifts, excessive or consecutive night duties, repetitive tasks and unpredictable scheduling all increase its strain on mental wellbeing. Limiting consecutive night shifts, ensuring adequate rest between duties and providing predictable rotas all help reduce physical fatigue; but they also give workers greater control over their lives, which is critical for mental wellbeing. Knowing shifts well in advance allows people to plan for personal lifestyle factors like sleep, meals, exercise, childcare and social time. This predictability can significantly reduce stress and anxiety, particularly for those juggling work with family responsibilities.

However in ports, this is not always straightforward. Port environments are often governed by unique operational pressures like cargo unloading, vessel turn around times, and even weather; these factors increase the need for risk assessments to consider fatigue. While management may not have control over their employees’ lifestyle, it is essential that they take responsibility where practicable in ensuring fatigue risks are minimised, especially within the high-pressure environments ports present.

Managers

Managers and supervisors sit at the critical middle ground. They are often best placed to notice early warning signs: changes in behaviour, lapses in concentration, repeated minor incidents, or workers struggling to stay alert. Things like incident reports, equipment damage and near misses can all act as indicators, particularly when trends emerge across certain shifts or times of day. It is important to consider the unique impacts fatigue can have in small everyday behaviours and choices, and this isn’t always easily detected.

Additionally, managers themselves may be affected by fatigue, which makes training and awareness essential. Recognising patterns, not just one-off mistakes, can help identify fatigue before it results in harm. While there is no universal experience of mental health and fatigue, work-life balance must be considered as part of fatigue management, not treated as a separate issue.

“As a minimum, the employer rather than the operator should look at the shift patterns they create to reduce that fatigue, rather than expecting the worker to recognise the signs themselves,” explains Nicola.

Shared responsibility and employees

Effective control of fatigue requires a shared responsibility across all organisational levels. While the responsibility of fatigue should never rest solely on the individual, employees have the responsibility of communicating when fatigue has affected their physical or mental wellbeing, to ensure they receive support before it worsens. While organisations should have an open-door culture to encourage reporting, workers themselves can proactively improve fatigue through practical, achievable steps such as prioritising sleep, adjusting their diets in line with shift patterns, maintaining a level of physical activity, and most importantly, knowing their own limits and reporting concerns early.

“You could be mid-conversation and start to drift off,” Nicola says. “That would be incredibly dangerous if you were behind the wheel of heavy machinery.

“If somebody was driving a piece of plant or equipment, they could strike something which they wouldn’t normally have done,” she adds. “Supervisors might start to see that through incident reports for damage to equipment or plant.”

Culture: the foundation of fatigue risk management

Nicola believes tackling fatigue effectively depends heavily on workplace culture. Workers must feel confident raising concerns about tiredness without fear of blame or repercussions. Creating this kind of open, two-way communication allows problems to be addressed early, whether that means adjusting shift patterns, reviewing workloads or providing additional support.

What works will differ from person to person. Much like mental health, supporting fatigue means recognising that there is no one-size-fits-all solution and that flexibility, understanding and dialogue matter. By addressing fatigue holistically as both a safety and mental health issue, ports can create safer operations, healthier workers and more sustainable workplaces.

“I don’t think there’s a single solution,” Nicola explains. “It’s not one-size-fits-all — it’s about making workers believe that they can come to you and talk to you if there’s a problem.

“The more they do it, the more they say it, the more the employees will start to believe that they can.”

It was evident from the discussion that there isn’t a single solution, but the more organisations demonstrate that conversations about fatigue are welcome, and acted on, the more workers will believe it. Nicola points to resources available through the Health and Safety Executive, including fatigue risk management guidance and tools designed to help organisations review shift patterns and manage human factors more effectively.

PSS thanks Nicola Jaynes for sharing her time and expertise on fatigue management.