Why Sitting May Be Ruining Your Life

There's been a bunch of articles floating around about how we're all doomed to die of obesity and arthritic related illnesses because of one facet of our modern lifestyles: the fact that we sit in a chair most of the day.

Research has shown that even if you exercise regularly, the fact that you're hunched over like a grasshopper in front of your desk for hours on end means you will have a higher risk of mortality in general than those who move throughout their day. Maybe this is why teachers live so long (or at least it seems that way!). Another study found that sitting for more than 6 hours a day shuts off the enzyme that digests fats (lipase) - completely independent of diet or exercise. To drive the point home, people who sit for most of the day are 54% more likely to die from heart attacks. Seriously.

So what are we supposed to do? Throw caution to the wind and buy a standing desk? Yeah, I didn't think so either. What you can do is:

1. Take Back Your Lunch. More and more people are working through their lunch, or grabbing a bite in between meetings (mainly due to workloads and the feeling that you need to put in 150% or you'll see a pinkslip on your desk). This is bad. A 2010 research study found that taking a break during your lunch is correlated with decreased emotional, mental, and physical stress and strain. 
2. Take Booster Breaks.  Take short breaks in-between projects or after a meeting in order to re-energize and re-center yourself. Set a 5 minute reminder on your outlook calendar every hour (or few hours) and do some stretches or light exercises at your desk (examples of exercises here and here).
3. Live Ergonomically. Part of your back, wrist, or neck pain may be due to a cramped workstation. OSHA has a lot of information on their website on proper body positing and how you can set up a ergonomic workstation.  

What do you think about this whole "sitting is killing you" trend? What changes can you make to decrease the amount of time you spend on your keister? 

Be.Well.Now

The problem with bringing your whole self to work

Ever wish you didn't have to check yourself at the sliding glass door? Think it would be a lot easier to get through the day if you could just bring your whole self to work?

Well, this may cause more problems that you think (to both you and your employer!)

True, studies have shown that job related emotional labor (having to smile when you're sad or cheer people up regardless of what's going on in your life) has been linked to increased work-family conflict, so being able to openly express your emotions can lead to less strain and conflicts. Also, Dr. Russ Eisentat's research found that people who do not have to compartmentalize, but can bring all of their home, social, and other selves to the workplace are happier.

However, a recent Fortune Magazine article made some convincing points about why bringing all of your life's drama into the workplace could be detrimental to everyone, and I've got a few reasons of my own to add:

1. You could be alienating the single or childless employees. If everyone knows that Carol wants to leave early in order to catch her daughter's soccer game, whereas Kathy wants to head out early to get in a run before the sun goes down (both will be logging on later that night to make up the work), managers who need the coverage will have to prioritize. And although we don't exactly live in a society that supports families, Carol's may just seem a more pressing matter. And if this continues, Kathy (and other childless employees) may just start to get pissed.
2. Let's look at ROWE, shall we? A Results Only Work Environment (ROWE) is one in which employees are evaluated on outputs, performance, and results only. Here, it does not matter where, when, or how you work (you could be working upside down in a fish tank at midnight) as long as you perform. ROWE is all about accountability and letting the individual be in charge of his or her own workstyles. This is kind of an extreme example of bringing your whole self to work (wherever you are!), and it's important to keep in mind that this can only be successful if everyone buys in to this huge workforce change. 
3. In our society, we can't all be best friends at work. Although having a best friend at work helps increase engagement and happiness, having everyone be your best friend makes actual business decisions extremely difficult. On-boarding, layoffs, and promotions become extremely personal, and the fact that managers will know all the complications going on in their direct reports' lives will mean that they need to be case managers and social workers as well! While this may work for a small, family owned company, you may run into some big troubles in a mid to large sized organization.

What do you think? Should we be bringing our whole selves to work, or is this another question of "are you a segmenter or integrator?" 

Be. Well. Now. 

New Year, New Stressors: Preventing Stress and Burnout in 2012

As we're all getting ready to head back into the office (hopefully) refreshed from our vacations, it may be a bit overwhelming to think about catching up on our 'email jail' and the workloads awaiting our attention.  Now before we all start hyperventilating--there's hope! Although workloads don't look like they're going down anytime soon, new research is shedding new light on other factors within our control that can help decrease workplace stress and lead to more centered, engaged employees.

A 2005 National Institute of Justice study found that heavy caseloads, workplace conflicts, and low pay led to stress and high turnover among parole and probation officers, but researchers out of UC Berkeley were more interested in the individuals who just happened to be thriving in the same environment. What makes some people completely stressed and burnout while others are still engaged and enjoy their jobs? Well, what the UC Berkeley researchers found was that empathy played a huge part in engagement and de-stressing.

Results from this research haven't been released yet, but the authors (Dr.'s Ekman & Halpern) recommend working on cultivating empathy (understanding the experience of others - great videos on how to develop empathy here) in yourself and in your employees in order to help decrease stress and increase engagement.

In addition,  a recent study out of Tel Aviv University studied the effects of job control, workload, and supervisor and co-worker support on morbidity and a variety of health outcomes by following employees' health and job measures over a 20 year period (Shirom, 2011). While little to no effects were found for job control, workload, and supervisor support, having  strong peer social support-which could represented how well a participant is socially integrated into his/her workplace--was positively related to lower morbidity and disease risks.  And another study found co-worker support to be linked to lower blood pressure and a decreased risk of cardiovascular disease (Karlin, 2003).

How can you work to empathize with co-workers or clients and build your social support systems in 2012?

References:

Karlin, W., Brondolo, E., & Schwartz, J. (2003).  Workplace social support and ambulatory cardiovascular activity in New York City traffic agents. Psychosomatic Medicine 65, 167-176.

Shirom, A., Toker, S., & Alkaly, Y. (2011). Work-based predictors of mortality: A 20-year follow-up of healthy employees. Health Psychology 30 (3) 268-275.

Be. Well. Now.

Welcome

Happy 2012!

Judging by the barrage of sports club and diet program commercials, I think that wellness is once again on top of everyone's resolution list. As a budding work/life and wellness professional, total wellbeing is always on top of my list, not only for myself, but for employees and society in general. Through this blog, I'd like to share my thoughts on recent news or research articles and how we can use this information to enact changes both as individuals and work-life professionals. Thanks for reading :)

Be. Well. Now.