Lack of “printer and coffee trips” risk to UK office workers health

British workers are in poor health, with more than 10 million UK male employees overweight or obese.

According to a survey of 8,778 workers by water cooler company Water Wellpoint, two thirds have an unhealthy body mass index (BMI).Nearly a third of respondents have high blood pressure and 59 per cent have a lower fluid intake than is recommended. Female workers don’t fare much better, with 44 per cent of women tested having a higher BMI than recommended, reinforcing data showing that more than half (56 per cent) are overweight or obese.

Rory Murphy, spokesman at Water Wellpoint, says: “We believe poor health is a real issue, both for employers who are trying to tackle sickness absence levels and maintain productivity, and for the coalition government which has made it clear it will cut costs across the welfare system and the NHS.

It’s the long periods of sitting at your desk that may be the killer. Scientists have identified a new threat from our sedentary lifestyles that they call "muscular inactivity".

Sitting still for long periods of time leads to the buildup of substances in the blood that are harmful to health. And exercise alone won’t shift them.

Millions of people lead sedentary lives, spending their days between car, office desk and the couch in front of the TV. While the ill effects are well recognised it has conventionally been thought that they can be offset by frequent trips to the gym, swimming pool or jogging track.

Now researchers say that that is not enough. In addition to regular exercise, office workers need to keep moving while they work, by making regular trips to the printer, coffee machine or to chat with colleagues.

Writing in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, Elin Ekblom-Bak and colleagues from the Swedish School of Sport and Health Sciences and the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm say research shows long periods sitting and lack of “whole body muscular movement” are strongly associated with obesity heart disease, cancer and diabetes, and an overall higher risk of death, irrespective of whether they take moderate or vigorous exercise.

Dr Ekblom-Bak said: “Everyone knows about the health benefits of regular exercise. But what we have not been alerted to before is that long periods sitting down carries an extra risk that cannot be dealt with by taking exercise. There are a growing number of studies that show this.”

Dr Ekblom-Bak said that sitting still should be recognised as a risk to health, independently of taking too little exercise.

“It is important to have a five minute break from desk work every 45 minutes. Don’t email colleagues - walk across the office to give them the message. Take a coffee break or put the printer in the next room. I am a desk worker and I try to do it. It is not difficult but sometimes you get lost in your work and you forget about it.”

Email becoming counterproductive leading to information overload

Office workers are being overwhelmed by a deluge of unwanted data and are largely becoming less effective as a result of their companies' email practices says research.

In a poll of 1,000 workers conducted by market researcher OnePoll, 70 per cent of employees complained about being sent irrelevant emails or being copied on emails of no interest.

More than a third (38 per cent) of respondents said they now suffer from information overload at work.

Office workers now face the choice of trawling through countless irrelevant emails or ignoring them and potentially missing out on vital messages.

Tim Barker, vice president of EMEA strategy for CRM solutions company Salesforce says: ‘The habit of “blasting out” emails to a large group of people to ensure that there is no chance of leaving anyone out of a message has created a situation where email is now becoming counterproductive.’

BECOME A FILTER NINJA

Outlook and other email software lets you set up filters that show you only the messages that meet your selected criteria.

When you filter your emails by contact or by those which are direct to you the ones which are likely to deserve a faster reply too can be brought to your attention. Filters can be as customised as you like depending on the content or contact of most interest or relevance to you.

REDUCE YOUR CARBON COPY FOOTPRINT

Many of us use the cc line too liberally, copying everyone in our organization who has recently expressed an opinion on the subject we're writing about.

While there are legitimate reasons for using the cc line to keep people in the loop, abuse of the electronic "carbon copy" is a big factor behind inbox bloat.

You can dissuade persistent offenders by politely explaining to them what you need to know. But good etiquette is always best taught through example. Cut down on the cc'ing and trust that others will follow your lead.

GRAB A TECHNICAL ASSIST

Filters are okay, but my email software really ought to be able to do the hard work for me. After all, it has all the information it needs to figure out who are my most important contacts based on the frequency with which we exchange email.

That's the theory behind Gmail Priority Inbox, a feature Google introduced on August 30. This optional way of organizing your Gmail puts your important messages at the top of your inbox.

Original Sources: Computerworld.com, Salesforce.com and Smallbusiness.co.uk, Reuters.com