Excessive workloads can really harm mental, emotional, and physical health, and fatigue is a major cause of workplace accidents and incidents. Employers rarely deal with it unless prompted by workers’ action, and some mistakenly believe it’s your problem and you should manage your time better, spend less time talking or work more quickly – but this is a blatant attempt to shift their responsibility onto staff.
If you don’t report excessive workload, you’re enabling management to never address it and encouraging them to keep pushing for more ‘efficiency targets’ because they think that if no-one’s complaining there must be more ‘fat to trim’.
You can find yourself in a catch 22 where you want to report excessive workload but are so busy you keep putting off doing the paperwork required to formally lodge a complaint, but it’s important to complete an incident report every time you identify an unsafe condition and encourage workmates to do the same.
An incident report places responsibility and accountability back onto the employer where it belongs, gives them nowhere to hide, and can be the start of a paper trail to identify and demonstrate the existence of ongoing problems unresolved by managers.
How you can recognise excessive workload:
What you can do about excessive workload:
Don’t give up - never underestimate the power of committed people because it’s the only thing that’s ever created change.
If you’re worried about your workload HACSUassist offers support and guidance for members and all calls are confidential. Just call 1300 880 032 or email assist@hacsu.org.au