Shiftwork Fatigue – Going Into Work Wearing Two Different Shoes!

If you suffer from shiftwork fatigue then you might relate to the following story. You see, as shiftworkers we are prone to suffering from constant fatigue – in fact it is something that we battle with each and everyday.

We have to put up with disrupted sleeping patterns, a lack of energy to exercise, poor eating habits, family and social disruptions, decreased alertness, and we are certainly prone to injury at work due to fatigue.

All pretty positive stuff really!!

So have you ever been so tired that you’ve gone into work wearing two different shoes?

I hope you haven’t, but that’s exactly what happened to me yesterday.

Now I will be honest with you, I am usually a very organised person. As shiftworkers we have to be. The term ‘routine’ does not exist in our vocabulary so we have to do a lot of pre planning – like packing the lunch and getting the uniform ready the night before so that we’re not stumbling around in the dark looking for things at 3am in the morning.

Having spent over 15 years working shiftwork – you would think that I’d know that by now!

So just like I do every other day, I made sure that my uniform was ready the night before, packed my lunch, set the alarm clock and tucked myself into bed at an acceptable time. All good except that I forgot one thing – my shoes. I ended up in a mad flap digging around in my cupboard in the dark (I didn’t want to wake up a sleeping husband), and I was sure that I had grabbed the right shoes as I headed out the door.

Feeling quite chuffed that I had averted disaster and made it into work on time, it wasn’t until I arrived at work and looked down, that I discovered in horror that one shoe was black and the other was navy!

Lucky for me, my job involves sitting behind a desk for most of the day so I was actually able to “hide my feet” from public display.

So the moral to this story is if you’re a shiftworker – learn to be really, really organised.

Being disorganised is not a healthy way to live as you’re adding a lot of unnecessary stress into your life – just like I did when I went into a mad panic trying to find my shoes!!