Rosalyn Carter said ‘A leader takes people where they want to go. A great leader takes people where they don't necessarily want to go, but ought to be’.
An organization that wants to promote and cultivate a spirit of employee engagement, like a great leader, should be looking beyond what employees say they want, and giving them what they need. Sometimes we are our own worst enemies when it comes to knowing what is best for us and that applies to the places where we work.
At work, most of us find ourselves sitting at a desk. We may sit there for hours and there is scientific proof that it is killing us. So while many of us know we need to get up once in a while, most of us get lazy and days turn into weeks and before we know it, we are not getting out of our chairs the way we should.
And the consequences of sitting too much are really quite scary.
Consider these statistics:
• 24% higher risk of dying from any cause;
• Risk of having cardiovascular disease increased by 14%, while risk of having cancer increased by 13%;
• Risk of diabetes almost doubled.
Further, the science of sitting reveals that:
‘Prolonged sitting changes human metabolism, especially glucose metabolism. Idle muscles lose tone and don't respond well to insulin. So the pancreas produces more insulin to try to elicit a response from the muscles to take up blood glucose. This shift to producing increasing amounts of insulin contributes to the dynamic of diabetes development. Sitting leads to sluggish blood flow. Fluid can pool in the legs. Arteries become less flexible and have a decreased ability to dilate, further harming the blood vessels. Fat cells may become deformed and stiff with prolonged pressure, which occurs with uninterrupted stretches of sitting’.
Sitting is a habit…a bad habit that requires behavior change in order for positive change to occur. Employers who get their employees moving and encourage stretching, walking meetings, office strolls, walking clubs, stand up work stations will reap the rewards, as studies have shown that when employees get up and move they report significant reductions in fatigue and lower back discomfort. And most importantly, their productivity did not suffer.
New daily habits can be formed using calendar alerts, emails, text alerts or smartphone alerts as reminders. And supervisors should be using positive reinforcement and encouraging their staff to get moving, not penalizing employees by telling them to sit down and get back to work.
Strengthening wellness programs and placing an emphasis on employee health are also ways for an employer to show they care about their employees and cultivate an environment of engaged employees. And while your employees may resist at first, in the long run, getting them out of that chair is good for everyone.
Original article here:
http://ebn.benefitnews.com/blog/ebviews/take-a-stand-against-sitting-2746427-1.html?zkPrintable=1&nopagination=1
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