Work + Wellness

Health and wellness are hot topics today and the pandemic has brought the importance to the top of many people’s lists, including businesses. What it means to be well at work can mean different things to different people. We are going to look at a couple of hypothetical situations below as to what it might look like to have a work environment that makes you healthier and what a work environment might look like that contributes to making you unwell. In looking at these examples the hope is that you recognize a few things in your own environment that are working or not and that you may want to consider addressing. 

Let’s pretend that you work at a company that stresses the importance of health and wellness, especially in their employees. They do that by offering ongoing training where employees can look at and work on different areas of their wellness. They offer wellness retreats as rewards for reaching certain goals. They cater healthy options for work lunches and offer healthy snacks in the vending machines. They have a wellness group that coordinates monthly walks together and often they meet outside during lunch to walk as well. They might offer flexible workstations with ergonomic seating, standing desks, and access to windows and natural light in meeting rooms. The environment feels good and people enjoy working there. The employees take pride in themselves and taking care of themselves and also take good care of their workspaces and common areas.

Now, let’s imagine the opposite. At this company, you are expected to give 100% of yourself at all times and at the expense of your family or health, doing whatever it takes to help the company grow and be profitable. You are expected to work long hours, often without any breaks. Your workstation is very small, uncomfortable, and cluttered. There are no windows anywhere and you often arrive and leave in the dark, very rarely getting fresh air. You often grab unhealthy snacks to keep you going as well as soda to keep up the energy. Meals are often fast food or pizza ordered. Everyone is stressed and your boss is often yelling at employees, making it a very hard environment to work in. 

It is probably obvious which work environment you would prefer to work or be in. I would imagine that most workplaces fall somewhere in the middle of these two extreme cases. Environments impact people differently, so it is important to know how yours affects you. How does your work environment measure up? Even if you work at home, you can look at how your space contributes to or takes away from your health and wellness. 

If this is a topic that you need or want to work on, consider working with a health and wellness coach and getting started on a path to better health today.