Is Your Office Space Killing You?
After eating far too many fruitcakes this holiday season, you may want to do more than go on a diet after the holidays.
You may want to rethink your office space.
A new report from CoreNet Global is leading the charge with the question: Is your office space killing you?
CoreNet Global Workplace Community and Eurocres Consulting recently conducted a survey of corporate real estate professionals. The results: workers sit for an average of 6.3 hours per day.
Specifically, the report cited studies that have shown that prolonged sitting is a health risk factor independent of other physical activity. The report says, “We have become so sedentary that 30 minutes a day at the gym may not counteract the detrimental effects of eight, nine or 10 or more hours of sitting.”
Facing statistics like these, we have to ask this question: What are companies doing? While many companies offer healthy options such as athletic facilities on site, the report bemoans, fitness classes and more ergonomic work stations, those efforts will be wasted unless employees actively participate.
CoreNet is calling for companies to actively integrate exercise and movement into the work day.
The recommendation: Add elements to incorporate a healthy environment. Those include stand up work stations, treadmill desks, company freedom to work throughout the office, including outside, use of stairs, and company policies that encourage walking throughout the day.
“In the long run a successful workplace health improvement strategy will rely on initiatives that totally change the workplace environment,” the report concludes. That includes standing meetings and working opportunities that ideally integrate a flexible activity-based working environment.
Source: GlobeSt.
