Ramstein AB, Germany -- Consider the following scenario. You are a shift worker working 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. You stay an hour later in order to fulfill the requirements of your additional duties and realize that you have mandatory training at 7 a.m. the following morning. You have a 30 minute drive home. You arrive at your house, trying to be quiet so you don’t wake your family. You think about your sleeping 4-year-old who you haven’t spent much time with for days because of your shift. You finally get to sleep at 2 a.m., setting your alarm for 6 a.m. You get up the next morning after only getting 4 hours of sleep and drive in to your mandatory appointment. You drive back home at 9 a.m. hoping to get some rest.
But once you arrive at home, your 4-year-old is excited to see you at this time of day and wants to spend time with you. You decide to spend time with her, so you decide to stay awake until your shift which begins at 11 a.m. You report to work tired, but drink energy drinks throughout the day. That evening, you drive home at midnight, in the dark, having only slept 4 hours in the last 48 hours.
This type of scenario is all too common for Airmen in USAFE-AFAFRICA. Airmen are having to shoulder the burdens associated with accomplishing the mission, often resulting in unacceptable fatigue and low morale. More and more, Airmen are reporting that they are fatigued and burnt out. Airmen across USAFE-AFAFRICA are accomplishing the mission, but there is a cost to that success.
Long work hours, inadequate time off, and unpredictable schedules can be both frustrating and debilitating to performance. From a safety standpoint, fatigue leads to unsafe acts and conditions and even destructive behaviors. The debilitating effects of fatigue and all its associated risks have, in many cases, become accepted as the norm. As a result, some leaders have failed to take the lead on this serious issue.
As a result, the responsibility for managing fatigue has fallen directly on the shoulders of Airmen. Since fatigue is a natural part of the human condition, and since Airmen in USAFE-AFAFRICA will continue to operate on pressured 24/7 schedules; it will never be completely eliminated but it can be managed. Fatigue Risk Management System is a vital system that provides commanders and Airmen with the tools necessary to appropriately manage fatigue risk. One of its key tenants is that of “shared responsibility.”
This means that both Airmen and Commanders have vital roles to play in mitigating fatigue risks. FRMS provides tools to deal with fatigue without adding administrative burdens to already overworked Airmen. When it comes to fatigue management, everyone is responsible! Generally, Commanders take the lead and Airmen use available time-off to be rested and fit for duty.
STAFFING
The message is loud and clear at many units: inadequate staffing is a problem! Commanders are responsible for ensuring that their Airmen have the resources that they need to accomplish the mission. FRMS provides supervisors and commanders with avenues to elevate associated risk decisions up the chain. Senior leaders often state that, if units are getting close to a breaking point, they want to know about it. Previously, senior leaders weren’t confident about what it will look like and how they would identify it. FRMS provides commanders a method to identify those factors that senior leaders are seeking.
FRMS seeks to change the culture so that inadequate staffing levels that result in overworked, burnt out Airmen are reported up the chain, so that the risk may be mitigated at the appropriate level.
SCHEDULING
There is a science to scheduling! While inadequate staffing may indeed be a burden that your unit bears, there are scheduling strategies that improve quality of life and ensure that Airmen are getting adequate rest. Something as simple as allowing additional time off prior to a mission to allow an Airmen time to adjust their circadian rhythm, while allowing some additional family time as well, is enough to make a huge difference. Additional duties have, in many cases, become a huge burden to Airmen to the point that they can’t do their primary duties effectively. For example, a scheduling shop at a flying squadron may pull multiple qualified pilots away from flying duties. Many times, the constant switching of aircrew members at the scheduling shop leads to a lack of continuity.
FRMS provides ways to elevate risk and allows for commanders to take the lead on mitigating the risk. In this scenario, a commander could coordinate a proposal to hire contract schedulers to free up Airmen to do their primary duty. Additionally, contract schedulers would improve processes by adding continuity, as well as dynamic scheduling tools to the scheduling process. There are dynamic scheduling tools available now. At this point, every scheduler should have access to a dynamic scheduling tool of some type to assist them in building optimized schedules. Fatigue Avoidance Scheduling Tool (FAST) is one such scheduling tool.
FAST provides schedulers with a graphical representation of performance effectiveness and can be used to compare fatigue risks associated with current and alternative duty schedules, and also can be used to guide fatigue countermeasures. There are emerging scheduling tools that Air Force agencies are currently pursuing that will allow applicable Airmen to further optimize their scheduling skills.
EDUCATION
Commanders must ensure that every Airman understands basic fatigue concepts and mitigation strategies that can be applied to reduce fatigue risk. For example, Airmen should understand the debilitating effects of staying awake for extended periods of time. One study showed that, in terms of performance, 17+ hours of sustained wakefulness was equivalent to having a blood alcohol content between 0.05% and 0.10%! Driving quickly becomes a destructive behavior in these conditions, and in fact has resulted in recent fatalities in USAFE-AFAFRICA. Airmen may download an app for self-management of sleep habits called CBT-I Coach. This app is also used to augment face-to-face care with a health care professional by people engaged in cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-i).
The app guides users through the process of learning about sleep, developing positive sleep routines and improving their sleep environments. Going back to our scenario, a well-designed FRMS may have prevented the mandatory training, which disrupted the Airman’s circadian rhythm, and perhaps even provided some additional time off to allow this Airmen time to spend with his 4-year old daughter. A well designed FRMS will not only reduce the likelihood of fatigue-related mishaps, but can improve the quality of life for Airmen across USAFE-AFAFRICA.
For assistance in developing fatigue training, commanders can contact USAFE-AFAFRICA/SEH (Human Factors and Risk Management Division) at DSN 478-5538 or USAFE/SEH@us.af.mil.