Advice for employees

Fatigue can result from features both inside and outside the workplace.

There are lots of ways you can reduce the risk of fatigue at work. It is also important to think about what you can do at home, to reduce your risk of being fatigued at work.

Employee responsibilities

Under the Health and Safety at Work Act 2015:

• You have to take reasonable care of your own health and safety, and make sure that the things you do don’t affect the health and safety of yourself or others.
• You have to follow any reasonable instructions on how to work in a safe and healthy way.
• Your business must manage the risk of fatigue at work.
• You have the right to stop unsafe work.

Self-management and awareness of the impact of fatigue is essential. Individual factors that can contribute to fatigue include:

• Human biology – sleep, body clock, health, age and substance abuse.
• Life outside work – family and friends, standard or living, commuting, strenuous activities ie secondary job.

Find out more about the causes of fatigue and how to reduce the risks

WorkSafe's advice on reducing fatigue(external link)

Driving and fatigue are a dangerous mix. The infographic below demonstrates the consequences of fatigue, how it can affect you, early warning signs to look out for, common myths to combat fatigue, and provides basic steps that can be taken to ensure fatigue is managed effectively before you drive. 

Driver fatigue infographic [PDF, 364 KB]

Drive for a living?

There are restrictions placed on how long the driver of a commercial or heavy motor vehicle may work before taking rest. Restricting work time helps reduce the risk of fatigue in drivers of commercial and heavy motor vehicles.

Work-time and logbook requirements

Identifying and preventing fatigue for commercial drivers

Learn about driver fatigue and how to reduce the risks