Helping Customer Service Employees cope with fatigue this busy season

Businesses in and around Kingstown are currently buzzing as customers prepare for the festive season. Thoughts of stock levels and manpower are front of business owners and managers’ mind. Both staff and stock are equally important as you could lose business if you have stock but insufficient staff to sell or if you have staff but insufficient stock.

Particularly during busy seasons, the jobs of frontline employees could be taxing and how they feel usually has a big impact on their customer service. There are three types of fatigue that frontline employees would usually experience at this time of the year; Sleep Fatigue, Directed Attention Fatigue and Empathy Fatigue.

In an article titled “3 Types of Fatigue that Can Destroy Customer Service” author Jeff Toister said many customer service employees view the holiday with dread.

Many of them experience the demands of personal obligations coupled with their absolute busiest time of year which contribute to exhaustion and fatigue that are dangerous this time of year.

Today, we look briefly at sleep fatigue and empathy fatigue before examining a little closer directed attention fatigue. “Lack of sleep has been proven to affect several aspects of our lives, including work performance. Working while under slept can lead to irritability and a vulnerability to stress. The brain’s circadian rhythms are affected, and our reaction time to stressful situations is reduced.”

“Empathy fatigue has also been thought of as a secondary traumatic stress disorder. It’s a type of stress that comes from helping people day in and day out.

Physical symptoms can include inability to concentrate, be productive or complete daily tasks, headaches, nauseas or upset stomach, difficult sleeping or constant racing thoughts, conflicts in your relationships and changes in your appetite”

The reality is, it is not uncommon when working in a fast-paced customer service environment for frontline employees to feel tired and drained. This often happens when experiencing Directed Attention Fatigue.

According to Dr Rachel Kaplan, Dr Stephen Kaplan, Dr Bernadine Cimprich, and colleagues at the University of Michigan, we show signs of Directed Attention Fatigue when we temporarily feel unusually distractible, impatient, forgetful, and cranky, and there is no physical cause. “Directed Attention Fatigue is a neurological symptom which occurs when the inhibitory attention system, that part of the brain which allows us to concentrate in the face of distractions, becomes fatigued.”

“DAF is like many other issues that affect well-being in that it can get progressively worse if left unaddressed. More severe cases can affect a person’s judgment, increase feelings of apathy, raise the likelihood of accidents, and decrease overall performance.”

In an article published by Troutfoot.com titled ‘What is Directed Attention Fatigue’, the signs of DAF are explained:

Input – We may feel more distractible, have trouble listening, hear things wrong, or miss things.

Thinking – We may have trouble focusing, leave things half done, forget things, lose things and find it hard to think.

Acting – We may act on impulse, take chances, act impatient, make more mistakes, blurt things out, jump to conclusions, and overindulge.

Emotions – We may feel more irritable, bothered by small stuff, find it harder to handle noise and commotion and feel moody.

Planning – We may find it harder to make plans and decisions.

We may lose our perspective.

People – We may be more likely to take offense, laugh, cry or talk too much, or at the wrong times. We may be less likely to help, be considerate, and give other people a break.

As an employer, you can help to manage employees Directed Attention Fatigue by averaging overtime per employee, averaging work hours per week, averaging number of consecutive days worked and length of shifts. Also, be considerate to your staff. When you show that you care, they will work in your best interest.

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