How Your Office Job Affects Your Physical Health and What to Do About It

Believe it or not, your office job is silently taking a toll on you – it could be damaging your health in a variety of ways. The following are three of the most common ways your office job affects your physical health, along with some recommendations on how to counter each one:

Increases stress

Forbes reveals that cases of work-related stress have been rising. Over the last 30 years, overall employee stress levels have increased by approximately 20%, and it is leading to strained personal relationships (according to 76% of respondents), lost sleep (66%), and resignations (16%). What’s worse is that stress can cascade from bosses to rank-and-file staff, meaning that a stressed-out manager can create a ripple effect.

One thing you can do to combat stress is to be proactive and search for solutions to problems rather than worry. You can also prioritize tasks to get important things done on time. Lastly, eating healthy and getting enough sleep can do wonders for your physical and mental wellbeing. In this case, you may find the pointers we listed in “6 Tips for the Restless Sleeper” particularly useful.

Impacts posture and back health

Business Insider’s listicle on ways office work is destroying your health notes that sitting often “is terrible” for your body — so much so that it can lead to an early death. Before that even happens, chances are you’ll first develop muscular-skeletal disorders, like back pain and poor posture. To counter the adverse effects of sitting all day, Cornell ergonomics professor Alan Hedge suggests changing positions every eight minutes, as well as taking breaks to move around once in a while.

You can also invest in an ergonomic support pillow to ensure comfort and good posture. Pain Free Working’s guide to ergonomic support pillows lists three types of cushions that office workers can use. The first is a seat cushion, which can boost comfort and prevent pelvis and spine misalignment. The second is a lumbar support pillow that follows the spine’s natural curve, helping improve posture. The third is a combination of both. Such modifications are quick and easy fixes, but they’ll save your back and spine from disorders in the long run.

Exercise resistance

Just recently, University of Texas researchers coined the term ‘exercise resistance.’ It is, as the name suggests, a condition where the body does not respond to the metabolic benefits of exercise, notably insulin sensitivity and glucose tolerance. What this means is that only exercising on weekends is not enough to compensate for prolonged periods of inactivity during the workweek.

To keep your body from shutting down, you’ll need to get moving from time to time. Get up and stretch and move around a bit. Make simple changes like taking the stairs instead of the elevator. In other words, put in some effort to wake your body up!