Is your workplace making you unhealthy?

Monday morning. Your alarm goes off! You bound out of bed, barely able to contain your excitement that it’s the start of another working week.

Sound familiar?

Didn’t think so.

For the vast majority of us, our alarms go off a couple of hours ahead of our brains, which were probably just settling into weekend life before they were jolted back to reality. We drag ourselves out of bed, barely even registering the motions we go through as we arrive at our places of work -  honestly, do you even remember your trip to work? - and don’t even get us started on work. 

According to the Southern Cross’s Wellness in the Workplace survey that hit the news in August 2015, New Zealand’s workforce lost an estimated 6.7 MILLION days to absence in 2014. This is a number that is increasing, with absenteeism up on average from 4.5 days per person in 2012 to 4.7 days in 2014. 

That’s a heck of a lot of food poisoning excuses!

Significant factors affecting kiwi absenteeism or presenteeism are:

• Personal illness or injury

• The injury or illness of a person in the employee’s care

• Stress - with a whopping 28.6% of businesses surveyed reporting an increase, with reasons given including increased workloads, financial pressures, and long hours.

So that’s a lot of people away from their workplace. The ironic thing though is that it is frequently the workplace that is the key contributor to absenteeism. The key is to acknowledge that we all have a certain workplace culture, which needs to be accepted and cultivated in a positive way. We have found that small tweaks here and there to behaviour and understanding of our approach to the day can see massive improvements that are mutually beneficial for both employees, and employers.

Things to consider:

• Does your work place have a bar in it?

• Would you describe your workplace as ‘fast paced’?

• Is there a coffee machine in the kitchen and chocolate that is so accessible you groan every afternoon that you indulge?

• Do you have a mini celebration in your head when you hear the tinkering of the drinks trolley being pushed around?

WELL, we can talk to you about how to incorporate sugar, alcohol and coffee in the most effective way so it does not wreak havoc on your concentration, digestion, weight or blood sugar levels. Let’s be honest, in certain workplaces, alcohol, coffee and sugar are cemented in the company culture so we need to work WITH it, not against it and have an achievable plan for the day. 

Just a few considerations: 

• Are you fitness focussed, have a busy job and intend on eating healthily to compliment both but not sure where to start due to the barrage of conflicting nutritional information?

• How do you apply healthy eating to work AND home?

• Do you have a family you need to consider?

• What should you be eating after you have trained at the company gym at lunchtime?

There’s a huge difference between showing up to work, and actually being present. 

If you are an employee or employer and know that focusing on health and wellness is absolutely paramount to workplace success, then give us a call on 0221537890 to discuss how our range of services can help your workplace. Also, check out the Corporate Wellness section of our website to see what our clients say about us. 

Thanks, from Team Feel Fresh Nutrition.

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Image:@gilibenita