Fatigue Your Enemy my enemy

I have had a great response to my previous blog Why England sucked at the World Cup. The business case thanks every one. Your comment have been great. Which has given me some ideas for a few follow ups.

I have discussed Ego but other points where raised. And the one I intend to discuss here is the issue of fatigue (Thanks to Siegfried Adam Jr)

The English football league is made up of 100 or so matches and training and in the case of the world cup the players have had little down time and our rest. Combine this with playing in hot weather and any tiredness will show. Fatigue is a key issue to manage on the football pitch and in business. (please note that I am not saying this was the main reason England crashed out the world cup but just one of the contributing factor just like Ego did)

An over worked person will be less motivated for several reason, In the case of the players in the England squad this may have contributed to what I saw as a lack of pride and passion and other factor as previously discussed. After all no body preform at their best when tired. I also tend to think people are less motivated and more prone not to care about their mistakes and less likely to learn from these mistakes. Because we all make mistake we would not be human if we did not and we learn from mistakes. But we don't learn as well when tired. A further point on this issue is we are also more prone to make dangerous error and be less safe.

And as a result that is why fatigue management is important. And the England Squad may have help demonstrate this at the 2014 world cupI am no expert on this topic expect for what I have experienced in my working life. It is not complex never the less.For Example a person working 60 hour weeks will be more fatigued than a person working 40 hour weeks.

And longer hours does not always mean more productivity in fact it is often quite the opposite. There is a point in a working day were peoples productivity drops this will vary by the person. I will admit I don't know the figure/time.

But that is why fatigue management is an issue we all need to get our heads around. After all it is one of the biggest factor effecting safety and employee motivation it is that important. .