Walk and Talk: Walking Meetings Gain Popularity

Two to three people talking as they do laps of office hallways may get to be a more common sight. Such walking meetings in the workplace are shown to have “physical and mental benefits of being more mobile at work.”

Benefits include:

• Accruing steps to reach a goal on wearable technology such as FitBit.

• Expending more calories (15 minutes of walking burns 56 calories while sitting at a laptop expends 20 and standing 22)
• Walking meeting participants are less likely to miss work for health reasons.
• “… walking for as little as 15 minutes a day can add up to 3 years to life expectancy.”
• Spurring more ideas: “Creative output increases by an average of 60% when people are walking …”
• People are more relaxed and generate more ideas.

Tips for walking meetings include:

• Meet with 2 or 3 people
• Set a time, 30 minutes or less
• Go at comfortable speed
• Inform the boss
• Walk in a park, outdoors or around the office.

Are there other times you could walk during the workday? “Meetings, phone calls and email have come to consume more than 90% of the working time of managers and some other workers, such as consultants. Many of these meetings and calls could be conducted while walking, experts say.”

New businesses are springing up to combat sedentary behavior in the workplace such as StepJockey of London which promotes use of stairs for businesses in large office buildings.

Bachman, Rachel, “The Genius of a Walk-and-Talk,” Wall Street Journal, September 13, 2016, p. D1

Un-Sit Your Life http://tinyurl.com/un-sit-your-life

Are You a Desk Chair Potato?

Desk-chair potato is the newly coined term for those who spend most of the day sitting at work. As noted in Men’s Health, sedentary jobs have increased 83% since 1950. In the workplace of the 1980s, office workers spent 70% of their time sitting. Today it’s 93%.

Results of such changes are reflected in barometers of health. A “significant portion” of the increase in body weight by men and women in the US since 1970, for example, is attributed to the increase in sedentary jobs. Researchers found that both men and women expend 100 calories less a day on the job. This “change ... closely matched the actual change in weight for 40-50 year old men and women.”

Other changes reported in the mid-1900s, according to Men’s Health, “… found that men who sat for long periods of time at work were twice as likely to develop heart disease as were men who moved around throughout the day. English bus drivers were more likely to suffer from heart attacks than bus conductors; mail sorters were more likely to suffer from heart attacks than mailmen.”

Sitting on the job for 10 or more years doubled the risk of colon cancer and increased the risk of rectal cancer by 44% according to an Australian study.

Aside from the metabolic dis-regulation potential of on-the-job sitting, pain and musculoskeletal distress results from chair time at work. Researcher Eric Jensen notes that “The typical office worker has more musculoskeletal problems than any other industry-sector worker, including construction, metal industry and transport workers. ... One researcher’s conclusion: Sitting is as much an occupational risk as lifting heavy weights on the job. (Hettinger, 1985).”

From Un-Sit Your Life, The Reflex “Diet” Solution, Change your sitting habits, empower your life  by Barbara and Kevin Kunz

My Job is Making Me Fat

                                                   My Job is Making Me Fat

Fighting weight gain? Sitting all day at work isn’t helping.

You probably know that already but consider what one study found. A “significant portion” of the increase in body weight by men and women in the US since 1970 is attributed to the increase in sedentary jobs. Researchers found that both men and women expend 100 calories less a day on the job. This “change ... closely matched the actual change in weight for 40-50 year old men and women” over the years.

There are opportunities to expend more calories during your work day by moving more and taking breaks from sitting. An added benefit: it’s not just your weight that will benefit as you make plans to un-sit at work. You can improve how your metabolism works and lessen your risk for heart disease and diabetes.

Consider the calorie count for a typical day at the office:

Park by building, take elevator to your floor: 15 calories

Make phone calls for an hour at desk: 15 calories

Seated 45-minute lunch: 25 calories

Seated one hour meeting: 15 calories

Take elevator to ground floor. Walk to car. Drive home: 15 calories

Total: 85 calories

Consider the calorie count for a typical day at the office with some planning:

Park 5 blocks from office. Take stairs to your floor: 80-120 calories

Take calls standing up and pacing with notepad on bookcase or filing cabinet to take notes without bending down: 100-130 calories

Walk 30 minutes at lunch; sit and eat 15 minutes: 100-130 calories

One hour walking meeting: 150-200 calories

Take stairs out of the building, walk back to car: 80-100
Total: 510-680 calories

(Adapted from Move a Little, Lose a Lot by Dr. James Levine and Selene Yeager.)

Taking breaks

Taking breaks in sitting at the office expends from 24 to 132 calories during an eight-hour day depending on how much of a break you take each hour: 

• a 1-minute break every half hour results in the expenditure of an additional 24 calories over an 8-hour time period 
• a 2-minute break every half hour results in 59 extra calories expended 
• a 5-minute break every half hour results in an 132 additional calories expended.

Consider using a standing desk
“Standing burns 40 percent more calories than sitting, which translates to weight loss for a 175 pound person in the following way:
• Standing for 2.5 hours each day would result in an extra energy expenditure of 350 calories per day.
• It takes 3,500 calories to equal 1 pound of weight loss
• Ten days of 350 calories per day equal 1 pound of weight loss
• There are 250 working days in a year or the potential for 20-25 pounds of weight loss by adopting this method of working.”

(From Dr. Mark Benden, advocate of the use of a standing desk at he office, researcher and author of Could You Stand to Lose?)

Sitting on the Job, Will Law Suits Follow?

Start talking to people about sitting too much at work and the stories come out. And, everyone has a story. Some are sad. Some are indignant. Some are angry. You hear the stories and you wonder, what is the human toll and, yes, what is the legal liability for businesses requiring hours of sitting time of employees?

The 50-year old computer engineer talks about his fellow computer workers, some of whom he’s known since they were all in their 20s. They’ve gained weight over the years as he gestures with his hands to illustrate the increase in size. But he strikes a sad note when he talks about those “who aren’t there any more”, two forty-somethings who have died young.

There’s the 40-year old experienced UN attorney told by the boss, I expect to see you in this department sitting at your desks working from 9 to 5 with 1/2 hour for lunch. She’s indignant.

Then there’s the sixty-something event planner whose company has a policy of “move around” but when it comes to encouraging movement, there is none. She’s retired early due to her health problems and she wonders how much a work life of sitting contributed. She’s angry.

Is health and safety in the workplace compromised by requirements that employees sit for hours at a time? Research shows the answer is yes.

The presence of smoking in the workplace was debated as a health issue and anti-smoking measures were implemented. Now on the job sitting has the real possibility of being a similar contentious and  litigious issue. Will measures be implemented to lessen businesses’ liability?

People sue for all sorts of reasons. The bottom line on the issue: a company may need an un-sitting policy to show a good faith effort to meet the risk to employees sitting on the job.

Issue #1

On the job sitting is being linked to lifestyle conditions such as heart attack, colon cancer, diabetes and musculoskeletal problems.When an employee becomes ill, will he or she blame the employer for hours spent desk bound on the job?

Research shows:

• The risk for heart attack increases by 54% for people who sit most of the day

• Sitting on the job for 10 or more years doubled the risk of colon cancer and increased the risk of rectal cancer by 44%.

• Each 2 hour per day increment in sitting at work was associated with a 7% increase in risk for diabetes for women.
• Sitting at work more than 95% of working time is associated with neck pain. For General Electric expenses for employees’ musculoskeletal concerns account for 20% of health care expenses for white collar workers.

Issue #2

Then there are corporate wellness programs where employers ask employees to take responsibility and be accountable for their health. Weight and metabolic biomarkers are frequently used tools to measure accountability. Sitting on the job may very well explain why an employee has a hard time meeting such criteria. The employee’s seated job is shown to contribute to abnormal metabolic biomarkers for blood pressure, weight, cholesterol and more. Will an employee sue, after becoming unhappy when being penalized or denied rewards for obtaining wellness goals?

The issue is looming. A survey of 2,900 companies showed 43% give discounts on health insurance premiums and 40% award cash or gifts to employees who participate in health screenings or healthy behaviors, such as exercise, weight-loss and quit-smoking programs. In the future 64% of larger companies plan to start using rewards and 46% plan to start penalties

Help your employees un-sit their work lives. It’s good for business.

Un-Sit Your Life http://tinyurl.com/un-sit-your-life

Is sitting hitting your bottom line?

Is sitting costing your business money? And, is it time to un-sit your business and preserve the bottom line?

On the one hand, sitting is the cost of doing business. In the workplace of the 1980s, office workers spent 70% of their time sitting. Today it’s 93%. On the other hand, there are real expenses related to the cost of employees sitting all day at work.

Increasing health care cost

Sitting on the job is related to weight gain, diabetes and cancer, as well as musculoskeletal discomfort, pain and problems. Health care costs linked to on-the-job sitting may not be immediately evident but over time, as the work force ages, costs increase.

• A significant portion of the increase in body weight by men and women in the US is attributed to sedentary jobs. A sedentary jobs means fewer calories are expended in the workplace, 100 fewer calories a day according to one study. The accumulated effects over the years closely match the weight gain for 40-50 year old men and women. Obesity is related to diabetes, heart disease and cancer.
• Jobs with the most sitting double the risk for diabetes (112%), double the risk for heart attack or stroke (147%) and increases risk of death linked to cardiac disease (90%). 

Prolonged periods of sitting are linked to 21% of breast cancers, 54% of lung cancers and 66% of uterine cancers. Sitting time is associated with 30% of colon cancers. Sitting on the job for 10 or more years doubles the risk of colon cancer and increases the risk of rectal cancer by 44%. It is implicated in increased risk of endometrial, ovarian, prostate, kidney, pancreas, and lower esophagus cancers.

• The typical office worker has more musculoskeletal problems than any other industry-sector worker, including construction, metal industry and transport workers. Addressing musculoskeletal problems is the number two medical expense for General Electric. Years of sitting impairs mobility and creates potential for injury while moving through the day and participating in sports, exercise or other activities. Later in life prolonged sitting creates potential for falls and lack of mobility.

Lessening the efforts of your company’s wellness program

Wellness programs encourage preventive efforts by employees. Yet the employees’ seated jobs and failure to address the impact counteract these efforts. For example, some wellness programs track abnormal metabolic biomarkers (blood pressure, cholesterol, triglycerides, glucose  and waist size). As sitting time increases so too does the risk for abnormal biomarkers. Abnormal biomarkers are lined to lifestyle conditions such as obesity, metabolic syndrome, diabetes and cardio-vascular disease.

Lost productivity and impaired cognition

• Sitting hour after hour is linked by research to reduced productivity.
• Moving=manufacture and transportation of food to the brain. Brain food (glucose) is created as postural muscles are used to stand and walk. Transportation of glucose through the blood stream is encouraged as postural muscles are used to stand and walk. Lack of movement interrupts the flow of food to the brain impairing cognitive abilities. A lifetime of sitting accelerates cognitive decline natural to aging as well as contributes to dementia and Alzheimer’s.

Absenteeism

Musculoskeletal problems are linked to absenteeism, lost productivity and health care costs. In the UK more working days were lost to musculoskeletal concerns such as back and neck pain than any other cause.

Bottomline

Un-sitting your business can rescue your bottom line from employee health-related expenses, absenteeism, and lost productivity. In addition un-sitting can bolster the proactive efforts of company wellness programs.

Un-Sit Your Life