Shake that butt!!

It comes as no surprise that sitting at a desk all day isn’t good for our bodies. Whilst most of us are aware of the muscular-skeletal problems associated with desk-based jobs, and the need for good posture, many of us are not aware of just how many problems can be caused by the sedentary lifestyle associated with spending so many hours a day at our desks, often not even breaking to eat our lunch. Be warned, you may decide to adopt a new approach to your workday once you realise the full implications of sitting down for so much of your life!

Deep Vein Thrombosis: Most of us are familiar with the condition DVT, commonly dubbed “economy class syndrome.” However, a recent study in New Zealand found that 34% of 62 people admitted to hospital suffering DVT had been sitting at their desk for long periods, compared to only 21% who had recently taken a flight.

Obesity: Surprise, surprise – sitting at your desk all day contributes to obesity. When sitting for extended periods your body starts to slow, fewer calories are burnt and fewer fat burning enzymes move through your body. This leads to slowed metabolism, reduced energy levels and weight gain. Those of us who don’t get up and walk around every hour or so gain two to three pounds a year.  That’s approximately 1 and a half to 2 stone over 10 years!

Increased risk of heart disease, diabetes and bowl cancer: Most of us accept that a sedentary lifestyle increases the risk of heart disease, but did you know that sitting for prolonged periods of time can increase your chances of developing diabetes by as much as 7%? Sitting all day can result in increased blood sugar and insulin resistance. What’s more, increased blood sugar and insulin resistance are both linked to the development of bowel cancer.

Tummy Bugs: A few years ago, scientists working on behalf of ‘Which?’ discovered that some computer keyboards had 150 times the acceptable limit of bacteria and five times the amount found on a toilet seat.  Which? claimed that many office workers come down with a stomach bug dubbed ‘qwerty tummy’!

Cosmetic Issues: It’s unfortunate, but sitting down all day doesn’t help our appearance. While sitting, hamstring muscles and hip flexors are permanently shortened and buttock muscles stretched but not engaged, causing your bottom to ‘spread’! As for our skin, things don’t look too rosy, frowning or squinting at a screen means that you will end up with frown lines around eyes and furrowing on your forehead; looking down at a document or screen for extended periods can cause neck creases and saggy jowls,  whilst the problem of dehydration exacerbated by the dry atmosphere can leave skin looking somewhat lacklustre!

The Solution:  Of course, none of the above are necessary evils. A few simple measures can help combat the risk associated with desk-based jobs.

  • Stand up and sit down a few times every hour and take the stairs rather than the lift to keep your bottom toned.
  • Boost your fluid intake. Try to drink seven glasses of fluid a day. Why not keep a bottle of water on your desk and top it up each time you make a cup of tea or coffee.
  • Wipe your keyboard and mouse daily using an alcohol based wipe to reduce the levels of bacteria.
  • Try to focus on something else about 20 feet away for 20 seconds every 20 minutes.
  • Get up and walk around every hour. Make a point of taking lunch away from your desk and, if possible, go for a stroll in the fresh air at lunchtime. This will reduce the risk of DVT, heart disease, diabetes, obesity and bowel cancer. It will also lift your mood!
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No pain – no gain?

Unless you are naturally well organised or meticulous from the start, becoming process focused is key to creating a low stress working environment. I am increasingly being asked by growing companies to help them organise their processes. It’s not that they want external accreditation or that they don’t know what they are doing or how best to do it, but new staff working in a different way, conflict with a customer or supplier or demands for copies of policies that they never imagined they’d need suddenly start eating into their time and making life very stressful.

Getting organised and having a framework is crucial to reducing stress. An efficient, working system is important in order to survive in the current economic climate. Using any of the well-known quality standards or models, whether it’s ISO9000, Business Excellence Model or another business model, will provide structure to the processes. They have been developed and refined over years, if not decades, through practical application by organisations both large and small.

Starting with the business plan and using it to set targets – financial, sales, people, markets, growth and then building the processes to support those targets helps to identify what is important to the business and the direction that you want to take it. Using the standards or models as the framework raises questions that may change your view on how you deal with certain aspects of the business, or strengthen areas that are currently weak. ISO9004 (the guidance document to IS09001) suggests both active and passive ways of collecting customers’ satisfaction information to improve performance, such as customer surveys, product feedback, contract requirements, market needs, service delivery data, competitor analysis. The Business Excellence Model suggests looking at non-financial as well as financial outcomes for measuring performance, such as market share, time to market, volume and success rates.

Not everything is relevant to every business and most companies are doing some of these things but in an ad hoc way. You don’t need to be preparing for formal assessment to apply the principles of quality systems. The point is, they make you step outside your working world and look at ways to improve your efficiency. Getting there might be a painful time but at the end of the day it should create a less stressful environment, where people understand how the company works and everyone is pulling in the same direction. And, as the company grows, all that hard work could be channelled into achieving formal recognition to ISO9000; an incredibly powerful marketing tool!

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