3 Tips for Staying Fit and Healthy While Working in an Office

How can you stay fit and healthy while working in an office?

  1. Take every opportunity to walk
  2. Remember to stand and stretch throughout the day
  3. Bring packed lunch

 

Working in a virtual office in Manila often means sitting at a desk for several hours at a time. However, a lack of physical activity in our daily life is very harmful to our health. Because work takes up the majority of our time, it is important to incorporate as much physical activity as we can into our work routine in order to have a healthier lifestyle. Here are some easy and realistic tips for staying fit and healthy while working a desk job in an office.

 

Take every opportunity to walk

Take Every Opportunity To Walk

There is no denying that working in a virtual office in Manila entail lots of sitting, so it is important to take every opportunity that you can to walk. Rather than drive your car, walk, bike, or commute to work instead. If you have no choice but to take your car, you can try parking a few blocks away from your office and walking the rest of the day. However, your dose of physical activity for the day should not be limited to your commute to and from work. You can spend a portion of your lunch break to take a walk outside and get some fresh air. Another tip is to take the stairs instead of the elevator when going up and down one or two floors. Taking every opportunity throughout the day to get your body moving will go a long way in maintaining your health.

 

Remember to stand and stretch throughout the day

Another way to increase your activity levels throughout the day is to stand and stretch every few hours. Another benefit of this is that it will help wake you up on days you feel particularly tired and sluggish. Research has shown that sitting down for more than 40 hours a week is very harmful to the body. Thus, it is important to stand every now and then. One popular tool being used in offices are adjustable tables, which all you to alternate between working while standing and sitting.

 

Bring packed lunch

Bring Packed Lunch

Another easy way to stay fit and healthy while working a desk job is to bring your own packed lunch to work. Eating out all the time is not only very expensive but the food offered in canteens and restaurants are not always the healthiest. You have more control over what you eat when you pack your own lunch and snacks, making it easier to maintain a healthy and balanced diet. Additionally, bringing healthy snacks will help keep you from being tempted to buy snacks from the nearby vending machine or convenience store. It may seem very hassle to prepare packed lunch every day, but your body and bank account will both be very grateful for the effort.

 

Key Takeaway

Staying fit and healthy takes a lot of effort and is very difficult no matter what job you have. By being conscious of what you eat and how active you are throughout the day, you will surely have a healthy lifestyle that everyone hopes to have.

How to Make Your Co-Working Space in the Philippines Healthy for Employees

How can you make your co-working space healthy for employees?

  1. Create a “break” room
  2. Get an air purifier
  3. Offer foldable standing desks
  4. Have “bring your pet” days

 

Business owners, in co-working spaces in the Philippines, are legally responsible for the health of their employees. They commonly fulfill this responsibility by offering sick leaves and health insurance. While these benefits help employees heal from their sicknesses, they do not address the factors which led to workers getting sick in the first place.

Sadly, a lot of these factors come from the office itself. The health of workers gets negatively affected by the mental stress and the dirty indoor air they deal with every day. Additionally, there is little space for any form of physical activity. Companies can simply solve these issues by adding health-boosting adjustments to the workspace.

If you want your co-working space to be healthier, these are the adjustments you can add to it:

 

Create a “break” room

In the office, it can be hard for employees to actually relax during their work breaks. A lot may just want to nap for 15 minutes, but the surroundings just seem too bright and loud. They end up pursuing other “relaxing” options that end up increasing fatigue. Drinking more coffee, stress- eating, complaining to other co-workers.

When employees find it hard to rest, they will also find it hard to be productive
Work breaks are the only times have to replenish the motivation and focus that was lost from working hard. A true break will let our brains to detach from office-related thoughts, do things that make us feel more positive, and actually move away from our desk.

To make your employees rest properly, you can turn an unused space into a “break” room. Since this lounge will be far away from their desks, just going there will allow your staff members to physically stop thinking of work-related issues.  It does not have to be extravagant or filled with amenities.

What matters is that it is designed to be relaxing. For example, a start-up renting in an events space at BF Paranaque can make a rest space for their employees just by renting one small room. Then, fill that room with bean bags or a few mattress pads. Your employees can easily sleep, meditate, read, and do other energy-replenishing activities with zero disturbances.

 

Get an air purifier

Get an air purifier

Most people underestimate how dirty offices, such as some co-working spaces in the Philippines, can be. Even if you clean and wipe the floors till they shine, you cannot physically clean the air you breathe. In the office, indoor areas are unclean due to a lot of factors.

  • Air-borne illnesses from fellow coworkers
  • Outdoor pollution
  • Chemicals from workspace computers, carpet, and cleaning products

The indoor chemicals in your workspace, especially, can make employees develop “occupational allergies”, where they seem to only develop headaches and rashes in their workspace. Your employees may be allergic to these chemicals without their knowledge. While you can’t really remove illnesses and outdoor pollution from the office air, you can do something about the chemicals.

Air purifiers in the office can clear the air of these allergic-triggering chemicals. Additionally, you have options to choose from:

  • Activated carbon filters
  • Air purifiers using UV light, ozone, or ionization
  • Molecule air purifier

 

Offer foldable standing desks

More and more foldable standing desks are appearing in Philippine office spaces.

The standing desk looks like a flat board at first, but when you open it, a table and adjustable legs suddenly appear. Since it is small, it will easily fit in your work table and its height will push you to stand up while typing.

These structures were created so employees can add more physical activity to their work routines and its popularity grew thanks to studies highlighting the damage caused by too much sitting. Sitting for 8 hours straight can make you gain weight, more anxious, and prone to different diseases.

Because of these risks, employees are recommended to stand for 15 minutes after sitting for 45 minutes straight every hour in the office.

 

Have “bring your pet” days

Have “bring your pet” days

Having animals at work every day can be a distraction at an events space in BF Paranaque. But, allowing them inside your workspace for a number of days can be beneficial for employees’ health. Allowing your staff to bring their pets can benefit them because animals are known to improve morale, employee satisfaction, workplace communication, and lower stress.

To make sure these pets don’t cause a mess in your office, you can do these things:

  • Plan with your staff, what are the most appropriate days for pets
  • Tell employees which rooms are “pet-free zones”
  • Create a pet committee to make things easier.

 

Key Takeaway

Businesses should not only focus on helping their employees when they get sick but also focus on making the office as sick-free as possible. Employees can become ill with different diseases because they have to deal with so much stress, physical inactivity, and indoor pollution on a daily basis.

Companies don’t have to spend a lot of money to fix these different issues. Just making space for relaxation, utilizing air purifiers, or simply allowing pets in the office on certain days can make a world of difference.