What Makes You Happy At Work?

Workers’ are fulfilled, organizations are refilled when happiness is instilled. – Amanda

If you have a 9 – 5 job five days a week and you sit at your desk all day long, take some moments to meditate on what makes you happy at work. productivity can be a 100% when workers are happy, happy to be at their desk, happy with their equipment and happy with their task.

Photo credit: http://www.Paramountinteriors.com

Of course, you can’t completely satisfy every worker and we don’t anticipate that an organization should, however, basic things like training, flexible work conditions, calm and peaceful environment that cut across all work task should be put into consideration.

Some organisations make bad decisions when purchasing office equipment and furniture, this might cause a loss if attempted to repurchase, but listening to your workers can give you ideas to improvise on the existing equipment and task if they are well informed and when you listen to reasonable contributions, work becomes easier for everyone.

For every worker, one of the keys to productivity is listening to your body, this is because the body is the first to give signals which may be portrayed as happiness even though it may seem irrelevant. A tired , mishandled and pain infested body isn’t a happy body and therefore isn’t a productive one. Don’t wear yourself out mentally and physically. Seek happiness within and without.

Now its time to consider what makes you and your employees happy at work, and if happiness is lacking, what have you done to restore it?

Photo credit: http://www.smallbusinessperformancecoach.com

Movement : A Key To Productivity At Work

It’s amazing how our bodies were made, not to be static but for movement. however, we have developed poor habits of been static each day unintentionally and sometimes due to laziness.

In recent times, the workplace has become the factory for body pains,musculoskeletal injuries and mental breakdown. This issues has resulted from employees working without the principles of movement at the back of their minds.

Imagine your body as a vehicle that needs to be serviced and maintained by assessing and implementing proper use of brakes, wheels, joints and so on. if you fail to check these important parts, it results to damage, wear and tear with a final breakdown.

We do not want these to happen to our bodies just because we are sedentary or static at work. When we move, we generate signals sent to different parts of our bodies, in and out of the central nervous system to effector organs which coordinate movements through the muscles creating space for effective blood flow as well as increased focus which enhances productivity.
But as we stay in one spot for countless hours each day, our degree of movement decreases giving rise to poor muscular function physically and mentally (remember the brain is also a functioning muscle) over the years and finally low productivity.

There are questions you may need to consider, let’s go through each of them.

1. How often do you move at work?

2. What kind of movements do you engage in and how long do you engage in those movements?

3. Are they purposeful or just performed to please someone else?

Movement should be done with awareness, it should be deliberately planned and motivated for it to be productive, been aware of each body part and creating meaningful movement along specific joints and muscles should be practiced constantly. For instance, you don’t just resume work and sit for 8 hours straight staring into you screen, even the movement of the human eyes are controlled by surrounding muscles and keeping them static can become detrimental to your health.

Moving for the first few minutes and sitting all day isn’t counted as meaningful. Mini 3 minute breaks inbetween work every 30 minutes are recommended for meaningful movement and reducing strain on particular muscles especially if you sit all day at a desktop.

Moving the different body parts during these breaks in specified directions will help to restore blood flow and ease out cramps or tight muscles. Learning these movements is also essential at work.

4. Are the movements static or dynamic?

We may refer to static here, as still sitting down and just moving one or two body parts around and dynamic as getting up and creating a flow of movements without stopping until a cycle is complete.

The dynamic approach causes spontaneous blood flow around the body , while the static may just relieve a body part suffering from a cramp or target area. It’s important to make good choices in accordance to the work task we are involved in. This makes the movement purposeful because they are targeted movements for a specified time before returning to work.
So now,

5. Are you ready to become truly productive at work?

Being ready is a question we need to ask ourselves at work, the change has to be intrinsically motivated by yourself with the willingness to take a break from the task and refresh your muscles and mind as well as externally motivated by the daily wellness programs planned for the workplace.

The daily planned programs can be as simple as using a standing desk and alternating task, to using exercise balls for stretching the muscles of the back and thighs in a play room, to having after work Yoga sessions for stress relief as well as a ping pong table within the office space.

I’d say, one cannot exist without the other because if you are willing to take a break while your office won’t let you; is as problematic as the workplace providing outlets for stretch breaks and you as an employee disregarding it.

Therefore, you need to reset your mind and take measures to increase productivity at work without damaging your body and mind in the future.

Movement is the Key! Move More , Live Longer, Be Productive.

Does Your Workplace Care?

Have you ever wondered if your workplace cares about you or just interested in your contribution and nothing else? Care can be defined with many terms but in this particular instance with regards to your health and well-being. And again not just talking about HMOs, but at work, working conditions on site, your workstation, YOU as a person.

Perhaps it sounds too personal, but yes, your output is also personal whether you work in a team or not. The ideas and tasks come from you and together with other individual ideas and tasks the job is accomplished. Let’s rewind to the caring part.

Have you ever had an ergonomic assessment at work? Not just the general surveys we see around but the individualised assessment that targets you as a person in relation to your work environment, equipment, body and mind fitness and several other tools.

This can be very important because without the individuals to operate the equipment or machines nothing gets done. ‘’ the machines don’t have a mind of their own and they are limited to ideas and tasks performed’’.

Here’s why the human being is important and the human factors come in. Ask yourself ‘’what sort of impact does my environment have on me, my mind and body?’’

Being productive starts from the mind and when there are problems adjusting to the work conditions, the mind gets distracted and the inability to focus comes in, and when you can’t focus what happens? Inability to be productive or not being able to reach maximum productivity and when this happens, here comes the stress leading to further breakdown of the body and mind aggravating into distress and depression then furthermore, you hate your job and probably what you have become as a result of the job.

This is why the little things at work can be very important. It all starts with a simple workplace assessment covering each individual and then the environment.

Assessment come in different forms, but more importantly, it is advised to carry out assessments while the individual is at work performing daily tasks, watching movements, anatomical and physiological response of the body, adaptation, repulsion, attitude, mind-set, time response, physical comportment and several other tools which are used to determine the wellness of an individual at work. With all this in mind, the root cause of low productivity, health problems, injuries and stress levels can be uncovered and the appropriate solutions to the problems will be implemented rather than going through the curative stage at the hospital, incurring ending bills just because the source of the problem hasn’t been removed.

If indeed productivity is your goal and you truly care about yourself or your employees. Think CARE, Think SMART!

GET THAT ASSESSMENT AS PART OF YOUR EMPLOYEE WELLNESS PROGRAMME TODAY!