Does UK office culture promote bad eating?
"5 steps you can take to reverse the tide of unhealthy office habits"
Having worked in offices since graduating I'm under the firm impression offices rate as one of the most unhealthy work environments you can find your self in.
In January this year along with millions of others I made the annual pilgrimage towards the gym. I was determined to lose a stone before a friends wedding in Easter but I’m getting really wound up at just how easy it is in the office to get fed cake and chocolate at intervals on par with a Duck getting prepped for Foie gras.
The average modern UK office looks benign. Nice furniture, chrome fixtures, well lit and if your lucky enough air conditioned, no obvious dangers. But look a little closer. There's the chocolate vending machine, always there to add some comfort for today then self loathing for tomorrow. A pile of cakes lays across the staff table, a way of thanks from the office manager for handling a difficult week.
A tin of Quality Street sits in the reception with only toffee pennies and coffee creams left over, a previous donation from a colleague claiming they're on the bridal diet.
Yes there's no doubt offices can be tough places especially in today’s times of economic uncertainty. Perhaps we've sweetened the blows of the everyday grind with
chocolate distractions but surely the office chocolate vending machine should not be seen as such an innocent furniture piece of today’s health conscious society.
Not so long back the Department of Health and National Health Service campaigned against smoking in public places successfully when on 1st July it became illegal to do so. Non smoking office workers no longer finished the day smelling like an ash tray bad news for Febreze sales.
But perhaps the Health authorities need to re focus on workplace health and challenge unhealthy eating in the office. Perhaps they should lobby for making it compulsory for office workers to have access to fresh fruit or ban chocolate vending machines?
But of course this level of legal intervention is a fiction. But if your passionate enough about making offices healthier places then perhaps office managers can take the proverbial bull by its horns before it becomes obese. Here are five steps to get you going in the right direction:
Step 1 - Introduce a weekly drop of fresh fruit eg fruitfuloffice.com
Step 2 - When it’s your birthday bring in Carrot & Humous - be prepared for heckling but someone’s got to stand up for healthy Eating.
Step 3 - Lobby your office manager to get a running or rowing
machine in one of your spare office rooms
Step 4 - Get the office behind a charity run eg raceforlife.org
Step 5 - Make sure the office coffee machine is not adding high Calorie whiteners. Get an office coffee machine supplier who sells milfresh virtually fat free whitener?
Perhaps in the future the health and safety inspectors will give out gold stars for replacing the chocolate vending machine with fresh fruit.
But until my low fat workplace dream future turns up any office worker can start the change. Go buy some celery sticks and share them out amongst your colleagues. They may look at you like you've just offered them a bag of pickled kitten heads but the revolution has to start sometime.
"5 steps you can take to reverse the tide of unhealthy office habits"
Having worked in offices since graduating I'm under the firm impression offices rate as one of the most unhealthy work environments you can find your self in.
In January this year along with millions of others I made the annual pilgrimage towards the gym. I was determined to lose a stone before a friends wedding in Easter but I’m getting really wound up at just how easy it is in the office to get fed cake and chocolate at intervals on par with a Duck getting prepped for Foie gras.
The average modern UK office looks benign. Nice furniture, chrome fixtures, well lit and if your lucky enough air conditioned, no obvious dangers. But look a little closer. There's the chocolate vending machine, always there to add some comfort for today then self loathing for tomorrow. A pile of cakes lays across the staff table, a way of thanks from the office manager for handling a difficult week.
A tin of Quality Street sits in the reception with only toffee pennies and coffee creams left over, a previous donation from a colleague claiming they're on the bridal diet.
Yes there's no doubt offices can be tough places especially in today’s times of economic uncertainty. Perhaps we've sweetened the blows of the everyday grind with
chocolate distractions but surely the office chocolate vending machine should not be seen as such an innocent furniture piece of today’s health conscious society.
Not so long back the Department of Health and National Health Service campaigned against smoking in public places successfully when on 1st July it became illegal to do so. Non smoking office workers no longer finished the day smelling like an ash tray bad news for Febreze sales.
But perhaps the Health authorities need to re focus on workplace health and challenge unhealthy eating in the office. Perhaps they should lobby for making it compulsory for office workers to have access to fresh fruit or ban chocolate vending machines?
But of course this level of legal intervention is a fiction. But if your passionate enough about making offices healthier places then perhaps office managers can take the proverbial bull by its horns before it becomes obese. Here are five steps to get you going in the right direction:
Step 1 - Introduce a weekly drop of fresh fruit eg fruitfuloffice.com
Step 2 - When it’s your birthday bring in Carrot & Humous - be prepared for heckling but someone’s got to stand up for healthy Eating.
Step 3 - Lobby your office manager to get a running or rowing
machine in one of your spare office rooms
Step 4 - Get the office behind a charity run eg raceforlife.org
Step 5 - Make sure the office coffee machine is not adding high Calorie whiteners. Get an office coffee machine supplier who sells milfresh virtually fat free whitener?
Perhaps in the future the health and safety inspectors will give out gold stars for replacing the chocolate vending machine with fresh fruit.
But until my low fat workplace dream future turns up any office worker can start the change. Go buy some celery sticks and share them out amongst your colleagues. They may look at you like you've just offered them a bag of pickled kitten heads but the revolution has to start sometime.
More articles >>> "Office workers deaf to anti obesity messages"
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