Jmmoric,
Good point, but one that is often misunderstood. In this line of work “fatigue” can be something that is particularly damaging to the safety of the operation and the individual crew member. The job often involves eccentric sleep cycles. By that, I mean cycles that can not only be disruptive in themselves, but also don’t follow a pattern. On top of just circadian disruption, there are all the usual life disrupters that can exacerbate the onset of fatigue. The individual then has to decide when the time is right to activate the circuit breaker and reset their work pattern so that things can proceed in a much safer manner.
in my experience, most people are very reluctant to display external perceived signs of weakness or feel that they are letting the side down. In reality, for most people, by the time they invoke fatigue, it is probably significantly overdue.
So no, you don’t have to report for work, since that would fail to provide the necessary reset. What you need is a short term break in order to arrange the requisite reset of your own work/rest cycle. It’s also important to distinguish tiredness from fatigue. Tiredness is a normal part of reaching the end of an energy cycle. Fatigue (although it often does) can be just the opposite. It can involve a cocktail of factors and can occur when you are in fact quite apparently alert. In itself, fatigue isn’t a scale of tiredness (although it is very often used in that context,) it is an accumulation of physical and mental attributes that are in danger of causing an imminent breakdown of the individuals safe, efficient and healthy functioning.