Healthy Working Is the New Healthy Eating

The amount and variety of healthy eating regimes are mind-boggling. The quest to stay fit and healthy is an obsession for many, and in a world where child obesity is ever increasing, it is vital that we give these healthy life choices all the “air time” that we can. Too many kids stay at home “talking” with their friends over social media, and too few of them get out into the fresh air. You’d think that when they become adults, they will realise the folly of this sedentary lifestyle, but far too many of them fall into an office job that continues to ensure that the Gluteus Maximus is the only muscle that they regularly use (sitting on their backside).

They might choose a fantastically beneficial diet, but unless they can back it up with healthy working practices, much of the dietary discipline may be wasted.

But what exactly are healthy working practices? In my opinion, this is something that isn’t talked about anywhere near enough. The perception that time in front of your computer screen equals work has not left our corporate consciousness, and until there is a reliable and universal measure of productivity, you never quite know how much your colleagues are achieving as they sit there hour after hour. They are certainly harming their health, that’s for sure.

How much more productive would they be having a brisk 20-minute walk every three hours? How much more alert would they be with a standing desk or even after a session on one of those desk / treadmills? They look fun, if not a little dangerous! Do companies insist on endless meeting in badly air-conditioned conference rooms where oxygen is in short supply? Do companies offer complementary massages or reflexology to get the blood pumping as it should?

Some companies do this, but more because they think that it will make a difference rather than truly understanding how much of a difference it can make. I am sure that one day there will be enough data for a CEO to sit down and calculate the effect on the bottom line of all these initiatives, but for the moment it is still all a little murky – the preserve of “believers” and “non-believers.”

Without truly objective figures collected over a long period of time, the challenge is that these sorts of initiatives will only be introduced when the CEO is a believer. While the science is still a little fluffy, most normal employees won’t lobby for free massages or exercise breaks, so it has to come from the top. With time, as the facts of the matter become ever more indisputable, employee power will become more of a factor, but for the near future, we will have to rely on opinion pieces like this to make employers think.

Obesity is an epidemic that should be fought on multiple fronts – every employer has a duty to ensure that they support their people in any way they can. The benefits for them are obvious, so why don’t more of them make healthy working a priority ?