Are interventions to reduce sitting at workplace effective? [reblog]

From the 28 July 2015  post at DR. SOUMYADEEP B

It is common for family physicians in developing nations like India to encounter patients whose profession demands sedentary lifestyle. Such patients present with back problems, obesity, cardiovascular diseases and diabetes and ask doctors for advice on how to decrease sitting. Workplaces need to address this issue by inculcating strategies to decrease sitting and improve health of their employees. Occupational physicians too need to suggest evidence-based strategies to employers. This article provides an evidence based summary about what interventions are actually effective for decreasing sitting at workplace.

Read the full Evidence Summary , published at Journal of Family Medicine and Primary Care here. (Open Access)

[Report] Lifetime Job Demands, Work Capacity at Older Ages, and Social Security Benefit Claiming Decisions

From the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College  

We use Health and Retirement Study data linked to the Department of Labor’s O*Net classification system to examine the relationship between lifetime exposure to occupational demands and retirement behavior. We consistently found that both non-routine cognitive analytic and non-routine physical demands were associated with worse health, earlier labor force exit, and increased use of Social Security Disability Insurance. The growing share of workers in jobs with high levels of cognitive demand may contribute to growth in DI use.

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[Reblog] Health is Life

From the 2 February 2015 post at the Health Care Blog by By ALEXANDRA DRANE

The literature is clear – when life goes wrong, health goes wrong. Case in point – it’s now estimated that workplace stress alone is causing additional expenditures of between $125 to $190 billion a year – representing 5 to 8 percent of national spending on health care…and even more importantly – 120,000 deaths a year.

There are growing examples of individuals and organizations that get this stuff – and that are fielding solutions to help. Companies like Health Leads (meeting us on the lowest rung of Maslow’s Hierarchy and getting us access to heat, water, safety…), and Iora Health (meeting us squarely where we are and getting us support for our caregiver stress, our divorce, our substance issue…). I recently got to be part of the latest Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Pioneering Ideas Podcast (link below) and in the process learned how broadly this idea is spreading…Dr. Paul Tang of linkAges from Palo Alto Medical Foundation(a project RWJF supports) talks about stress, and its effects – especially on seniors – and what we can do about it. Harvard economist/MacArthur Genius Grant winner Sendhil Mullainathan shares ideas for transforming health and healthcare in a world where ‘attentional real estate’ – given the messy realities of life – is scarce.  We double dog dare you to listen here:

As an industry with a mantra to heal, this is ground zero. We need to expand our definition of health to include life – and take this on not just as our obligation, but as our opportunity to address the fundamental drivers of health. And let’s not stop there. Let’s practice radical empathy with each other, and with ourselves. Let’s do it in the privacy of our homes, and let’s bring that raw authenticity with us to our work. Whatever you do to start acknowledging that health is life – start it now… maybe just by closing your eyes and inhaling a big fat breath of fresh air while reminding yourself, ‘I am not alone in this crazy world, because we all feel alone and on some level we are all crazy – but only in the very best of well-intentioned ways.’

[Press release] Reducing work-family conflicts in the workplace helps people to sleep better | EurekAlert! Science News

Reducing work-family conflicts in the workplace helps people to sleep better | EurekAlert! Science News.

From the 26 January 2015 press release

New York, NY, January 26, 2015 — A multi-institution team of sleep researchers recently found that workers who participated in an intervention aimed at reducing conflict between work and familial responsibilities slept an hour more each week and reported greater sleep sufficiency than those who did not participate in the intervention. Their study is published inSleep Health, Journal of the National Sleep Foundation.

“Increasing family-supportive supervision and employee control over work time benefited the sleep of hundreds of employees, and even greater effects may be possible if sleep is overtly addressed in workplace interventions,” explained lead author Ryan Olson, PhD, of Oregon Health & Science University. “The Work, Family, and Health Network Study intervention was designed to reduce work-family conflict. It did not directly address sleep, yet sleep benefits were observed.”

The invention focused on the U.S. employees of an information technology firm. Groups of randomly selected managers and employees participated in a three-month, social and organizational change process that included interactive sessions with facilitated discussions, role-playing, and games. Managers were also trained in family supportive supervision and self-monitored how they applied the training on the job. Data were collected through qualitative interviews 12 months after the intervention was introduced and by actigraphy, the measurement of individuals’ sleeping and waking patterns using a monitor attached to participants’ wrists. Actigraphy measures of sleep quality and quantity were taken at the beginning of the intervention, to establish baseline measures for participants, and 12 months after the intervention. Each of the 474 participants’ activity recordings were evaluated by two scorers, who identified periods of sleep relative to each participant’s waking activities.

“I applaud the methodological rigor of Olson and colleagues’ approach to assessing the Work, Family, and Health Network Study’s effect on the sleep duration and quality of a real world population,” commented Dr. Lauren Hale, Editor-in-Chief of Sleep Health. “This study demonstrates that interventions unrelated to sleep can improve sleep in the population. Furthermore, these findings serve as a reminder that there are opportunities to deploy innovative interventions to improve sleep.”

The authors had hypothesized that both sleep duration and insomnia would be improved in the study’s twelfth month; secondarily, they hypothesized that any improvement in sleep quality and duration would be mediated by employees’ enhanced control over their work time and reduced work-family conflict assessed at the sixth month after baseline. Researchers created a statistical mediation model that accounted for the multiple temporal aspects of actigraphic sleep data and participant characteristics.

“Here we showed that an intervention focused on changing the workplace culture could increase the measured amount of sleep employees obtain, as well as their perception that their sleep was more sufficient,” noted lead investigator Orfeu M. Buxton, PhD, Pennsylvania State University (with secondary appointments at Harvard and Brigham and Women’s Hospital). “Work can be a calling and inspirational, as well as a paycheck, but work should not be detrimental to health. It is possible to mitigate some of the deleterious effects of work by reducing work-family conflict, and improving sleep.”

Digicorp workplace (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

[Psychology Resource] APA Center for Organizational Excellence

APA Center for Organizational Excellence

·http://www.apaexcellence.org

From the Scout Report

The science of psychology is often associated with either carefully controlled lab experiments or the soft-spoken tones of a therapist’s office. But psychologists actually study a huge range of behavioral phenomena. This site from the American Psychological Association (APA) focuses on work and work environments, asking questions such as: What makes work meaningful? How can companies help people love their jobs? And what’s in it for the companies if they invest in making the workplace healthier? There is a lot to discover here, including the Articles & Research section, which links readers to coverage of workplace research by such media outlets as USA Today and Market Watch. The Good Company section is another great find and features Podcasts as well as a Newsletter and Blog that provide focused, research-based content for both employers and workers. Company executives may also want to look into the Psychologically Healthy Workplace Award, which has been “shining the spotlight on exemplary organizations” since 1999. [CNH]

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[Press release] Emerging trends in worker health and safety

From the 8 May 2014 EurkAlert

Abstracts at AIHce 2014 to cover several major areas including healthcare, ergonomics and public health and safety

FALLS CHURCH, Va. (May 8, 2014) – Eleven abstracts to be presented at the 2014 American Industrial Hygiene Conference and Exposition (AIHce) will reveal some exciting new strategies to protect worker health. These approaches range from advancing the safety culture in academic laboratories to minimizing the risks to workers in healthcare settings.

“These scientific abstracts and case studies show us exciting new opportunities and methods for providing workers and communities with a healthier and safer environment,” said AIHA President Barbara J. Dawson, CIH, CSP. “We’re certain that these presenters will inspire their colleagues with the solutions and best practices they will need to excel in their daily workplace challenges.”

Nearly 350 abstracts will be presented May 31 through June 5, 2014, at the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center in San Antonio. The meeting, based on the theme, “Evolution and Journey to a Safer Tomorrow,” is expected to draw more than 5,000 occupational and environmental health and safety professionals from around the world.

Below are short summaries of the 11 conference presentations highlighting new trends in the IH industry in the fields of ergonomics, air quality, noise exposure, healthcare, and public health and safety. For additional information on these presentations, please contact Nicole Racadag at (703) 846-0700 or nracadag@aiha.org.

Ergonomics

Musculoskeletal Disorders in Texas and the United States 
Michelle Cook, PhD(c), MPH
University of Texas Health Science Center School of Public Health, Austin, TX

From 2003 to 2009, trends in nonfatal occupational musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) declined from 26,810 to 14,690 in Texas and from 435,180 to 283,800 in the United States. In 2009, occupational MSDs accounted for 24.4 percent and 29.4 percent of all nonfatal occupational injuries and illnesses (NOII) in Texas and the U.S., respectively. This presentation will look at how occupational MSDs, which cost U.S. businesses $15.2 billion in 2008, still account for a large number of NOII and continue to be a public health concern.

Safe Patient Handling Technologies
Elise Condie, MS
RMIT University, Melbourne, VIC, Australia

This research discusses ways to help nursing staff use modern patient mobilization technology in hospital settings. Use of this equipment is better for nurses and prevents injuries to staff while reducing falls and pressure ulcers among patients who need help to move, thus helping patients get discharged from the hospital sooner.

Laboratory Health and Safety

Advancing Safety in Academic Research Laboratories
Lawrence M. Gibbs, MEd, MPH, CIH
Stanford University, Stanford, CA

Stanford University convened a faculty-led task force to review and evaluate safety in campus research laboratories and to recommend ways to promote and advance a robust and positive safety culture among researchers.

Infection Control Issues

Occupationally-Acquired Influenza among Healthcare Workers
Rachael M. Jones, PhD, MPH
University of Illinois at Chicago School of Public Health, Chicago, IL

Healthcare workers provide care to patients with influenza and may develop influenza as a result of occupational exposures, but they may not recognize the infection as being related to their work environment. Influenza has not been widely recognized as an occupationally-acquired infection. This is the first effort to tabulate its burden on healthcare workers.

Specialty Building IAQ

Secondhand Tobacco Smoke Exposure in New Orleans Bars and Casinos
Daniel J. Harrington, ScD, CIH
Louisiana State University School of Public Health, New Orleans, LA

Secondhand tobacco smoke is a significant health hazard that causes a wide range of cardiovascular and respiratory health effects, including cancer. The researchers measured levels of secondhand smoke in smoking bars, casinos, and smoke-free bars in New Orleans in 2011.

Airborne Hazardous Chemicals in Hairdressing Salons in Taiwan
Che-Jung Chang
National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan

This study found that the levels of formaldehyde in hair salon products and other hazardous chemicals found in hair salons in Taiwan might exceed the World Health Organization’s indoor air guideline for the public.

Occupational Injuries of Healthcare Workers

Nonwage Losses Associated with Occupational Injury Among Healthcare Workers
Hasanat Alamgir, PhD, MBA
University of Texas School of Public Health, San Antonio, TX

This study was designed to quantify the economic and quality of life consequences experienced by healthcare workers in Canada for the most common types of occupational injuries. Findings showed that many of these occupational injuries in healthcare workers are not usually captured or recorded in official workers’ compensation statistics.

Biosafety and Environmental Microbiology

Public Health Risk from Legionella Pneumophila in Whirlpool Spas
Thomas Armstrong, PhD
TWA8HR Occupational Hygiene Consulting, LLC, Branchburg, NJ

Legionella bacteria thrive in warm water, such as in that of whirlpool spas and whirlpool spas’ water mist. An estimated 10 to 20 percent of the community-acquired pneumonia cases (more than 60,000 deaths in the U.S. per year and 4.2 million treatments for pneumonia) may be caused by Legionnaires’ disease.

Protecting the Public and Workers

Employee Exposure to Air Contaminants After Hurricane Sandy
Kerry-Ann Jaggassar, MSc
ENVIRON, Boston, MA

This presentation will discuss how an industrial hygiene-based assessment was used to evaluate the risk of potential worker exposure to air contaminants of concern during the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy.

Lessons in CSR from Hurricanes Katrina and Sandy
William Sothern, MA, MS
Microecologies Inc., New York, NY

This presentation will look at the “reciprocal generosity paradigm” which, if embraced by businesses on a large scale, could promote substantial corporate investment in public health initiatives, while at the same time serving the interests of corporate stakeholders.

Community Noise

Noise Controls for Indoor and Outdoor Shooting Ranges
Stephen Katz, Academy Award® winner
Stephen Katz & Associates, Los Angeles, CA

This case study examined the measurement of noise at shooting ranges using multiple high-level instrumentation microphones and a high-speed, multi-channel recorder.

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AIHce 2014 is co-sponsored by the American Industrial Hygiene Association® (AIHA) and the American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists® (ACGIH). AIHA will mark the 75th anniversary of the industrial hygiene profession at this premier event, and celebrate its long history of protecting worker health and serving the IH community.

Information for Media: http://aihce2014.org/general-information/press/

 

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[Reblog] A Workplace Counters Ageism – National Institutes of Health

Just had to repost this. Last week at the Area Office on Aging (where I volunteer 6 hours or so a week), one of my clients was a 70 year old woman.  She voiced much of what the woman below said, including feeling unwelcome.  And this after 30+ years with the company!   Maybe all workplaces should have time to read and discuss the article below…Multigenerational Teams Work best.

Thank you Marti Weston, thank you.

 

From the 13 November 2013 post by Marti Weston at As Our Parents Age

Last Thursday, on the Washington DC Metro, a woman sitting in front of me spoke to a seat mate about ageism, a term first coined by Dr. Robert Butler, the first director of the National Institute of Aging (NIA).

As I eavesdropped, the woman on the Metro spoke about comments from younger colleagues, the tendency of some to roll their eyes when she speaks, and remarks about her retirement, still about five years away if she waits until she is 65. “I feel so unwelcome,” she commented,” that sometimes I make jokes about my own retirement just to counteract what I hear.”

Yet as the conversation went on — my apologies for listening in — it was clear that this woman loved her job and was engaged in her work. Lots of people in their late 50s and 60’s can identify with this situation.

So I read with interest the November 10, 2013, Washington Post article, In an Era Plagued by Ageism, NIH Prizes Older Workers. Written by Post reporter Tara Bahrampour, the report details how the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has created a work environment that accepts — and even celebrates — its older and veteran staff members. The article also includes a link to the AARP 2013 list of best employers for people over age 50.

A Few Interesting Excerpts

• This year, NIH topped AARP’s list of best employers for workers over 50, based on criteria including career development opportunities, workplace accommodations, flexible scheduling, job sharing and other employee benefits.
• NIH offers perks with particular appeal for older employees, including flexible work schedules, generous telecommuting policies, opportunities to mentor younger workers and fitness programs geared for older bodies.
• The benefits were not part of a master plan but rather something that evolved, said Phil Lenowitz, deputy director of NIH’s office of human resources.
• A big draw for scientists such as Waldmann is the ability to view a project in terms of decades, rather than years.

Read the entire article to learn much more.

A Few More Links Where You Can Learn About Ageism

• Dr. Robert Butler, Founding Director of the National Institute on Aging – July 2010, AsOurParentsAge
• Multigenerational Teams Work Best –  June 2011, AsOurParentsAge
  As summed up by Marti –
  Two broad reasons that a variety of age groups work together well and produce better results are:
  • Every generation has its blind spots so the different ages and perspective help to avoid problems and compensate for them.
  • Each generation can shine based on individuals’ experience.
• Ageism in Action –  September 2013, Huffington Post,
• Readers Offer Tales of Silicon Valley Ageism –  August 2013, SF Gate (San Francisco Chronicle)
• Ageism and Millennials – Part I and Part II – Dr. Bill Thomas’ Changing Aging blog
• Ageism in America – 2006, A PDF of a comprehensive report published by Dr. Robert Butler and the International Longevity Center (also founded by Dr. Butler).

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Truth or consequences? The negative results of concealing who you really are on the job

 

 

Caption: Clayton R. Critcher is an assistant professor of marketing at UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business.

From the 8 October 2013 EurkAlert

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY’S HAAS SCHOOL OF BUSINESS – Most know that hiding something from others can cause internal angst. New research suggests the consequences can go far beyond emotional strife and that being forced to keep information concealed, such as one’s sexual orientation, disrupts the concealer’s basic skills and abilities, including intellectual acuity, physical strength, and interpersonal grace—skills critical to workplace success.

“With no federal protection for gays and lesbians in the work place, our work suggests that the wisdom of non-discrimination laws should be debated not merely through a moral lens, but with an appreciation for the loss of economic productivity that such vulnerabilities produce,” says Clayton R. Critcher, assistant professor at UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business. Critcher, a member of the Haas Marketing Group, conducts research on consumer behavior and social psychology, including questions of self and identity.

Critcher’s paper, “The Cost of Keeping it Hidden: Decomposing Concealment Reveals What Makes it Depleting,” forthcoming in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: General and co-authored with Melissa J. Ferguson of Cornell University, details multiple negative consequences of concealment. The findings, says Critcher, stem from the difficulty of having to constantly monitor one’s speech for secret-revealing content that needs to be edited out.

The researchers conducted four studies, each of which was a variation on a single paradigm. When participants arrived at the study, they learned they would be taking part in an interview. Following a rigged drawing, all participants learned they were assigned to be an interviewee. Another supposed participant—who, in reality, was an actor hired by the experimenter—was the interviewer.

Some participants were given special instructions about what they could reveal in the interview. In three of the four studies, some participants were told they should make sure not to reveal their sexual orientation while answering the questions. For example, participants were told that in answering questions, instead of saying “I tend to date men who …,” the participants could say, “I tend to date people who ….”

After the interview, participants thought they were moving on to an unrelated study. In actuality, this second part of the experiment was related, offering researchers the opportunity to measure whether participants’ intellectual, physical, or interpersonal skills were degraded by concealment. The studies revealed the variety of negative effects of concealment.

In one study, participants completed a measure of spatial intelligence that was modeled after items on military aptitude tests. Participants randomly assigned to conceal their sexual orientation performed 17% worse than those who went through the interview without instructions to conceal. In another experiment, participants tasked with hiding their sexual orientation exhibited reduced physical stamina, only able to squeeze an exercise handgrip for 20% less time than those in a control condition. Additional studies revealed that concealment led people to show less interpersonal restraint. For example, the participants responded to a “snarky” email from a superior with more anger than politeness.

During another test, participants demonstrated poorer performance on a “Stroop task,” a commonly-used measure of executive cognitive function.

In consequent experiments, participants’ abilities were assessed both before and after the interview. This permitted the experimenters to more directly observe that merely going through an interview does not affect one’s strength of cognitive control, but going through an interview while having to conceal one’s sexual orientation led to significant declines.

In addition, the researchers varied whether questions focused on participants’ personal or dating life, or on topics for which one’s sexual orientation would never be revealed. Concealment caused similarly sharp declines in both cases.

“Environments that explicitly or implicitly encourage people to conceal their sexual orientation—even when employers adopt a ‘Don’t Ask’ policy—may significantly harm workers,” says Critcher, “Establishing a workplace climate that supports diversity may be one of the easiest ways to enhance workplace productivity.”

 

###

 

Watch Clayton Critcher talk about his research: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a2bSRNjd5Yo&feature=youtu.be

See full paper: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23796042

 

 

 

[Reblog] Take A Break

Always thought it was a good idea to take a break from sitting every hour or so…

This came from a post at LearnStuff.org

If you think working overtime, skipping your lunch hour and staying chained to your desk will make you more productive, you need to cut yourself some slack and take a break.Working non-stop without taking a break can increase your chances of weight gain, heart disease and worse. Staring at a computer screen for more than 2 hours per day can cause Computer Vision Syndrome, a real affliction, which causes blurry vision, headaches, dry eyes and can lead to long-term nearsightedness. However, getting up and away from your desk for just 5 minutes can alleviate eye strain and reduce fatigue in addition to making you feel better. The mere act of standing at your desk instead of sitting at it can help you burn up to 2500 calories per week. Not bad for just standing around.Work hard and break hard; doing so will make you a healthier, happier and more productive employee.

Take A Break by LearnStuff.com is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
Based on a work at http://www.learnstuff.com/take-a-break/.

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Should Your Boss Encourage You to Take Drugs?

And if so, is the workplace still drug free??? And if an employee would prefer not to follow advice on using a drug??

From the 6 June 2012 article at The Health Care Blog

A top executive I know recently decided to takeInderal before making high-pressure/high-anxiety presentations. The impact was immediate. She felt more relaxed, confident and effective. Her people agreed.

Would she encourage a comparably anxious subordinate to take the drug? No. But if that employee’s anxiety really undermined his or her effectiveness, she’d share her story and make them aware of the Inderal option. She certainly wouldn’t disapprove of an employee seeking prescription help to become more productive.

No one in America thinks twice anymore if a colleague takes Prozac. (Roughly 10% of workers in Europe and the U.K. use antidepressants, as well). Caffeine has clearly become the (legal) stimulant of business choice and Starbucks its most profitable global pusher (two shots of espresso, please).

Increasingly, prescription ADHD drugs like Adderall, dedicated to improving attention deficits, are finding their way into gray market use by students looking for a cognitive edge. When one looks at existing and in-the-pipeline drugs for Alzheimer’s and other neurophysiological therapies for aging OECD populations with retirements delayed, the odds are that far more employees are going to be taking more drugs to get more work done better….

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Why Do More People Die During Economic Expansions?

St Annes Nursing Home (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

From the April 2012 brief at the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College

The brief’s key findings are:

• When economic times are good, deaths in the United States increase.

• Previous research suggests that a likely culprit is poorer health habits tied to greater job demands.

• However, the increase in mortality is largely driven by deaths among elderly women in nursing homes.

• These nursing home deaths may reflect increased shortages of caregivers during economic expansions.

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MSN Careers – Tense times: Overcoming workplace incivility – Career Advice Article

Tense times: Overcoming workplace incivility

via MSN Careers – Tense times: Overcoming workplace incivility – Career Advice Article

Excerpt

some tips:

Take rudeness for what it’s worth.
Being on the receiving end of an unnecessarily sharp barb or inconsiderate brush-off can ruin your day. Why let it? Constructive criticism merits reflection; rudeness does not. So, don’t overthink the situation. While you can’t control how someone else treats you, you can limit how much it affects you. A person’s poor manners or behavior says less about you than it does about him or her.

Don’t go it alone.
What do you say at the end of a hard day when you’re asked about work? “I don’t want to talk about it” is a common response. But in many cases, bottling your feelings only exacerbates the problem.

Opening up to supportive friends or family can be cathartic. Likewise, seeking the wisdom of a mentor or sharing work-related war stories with a trusted member of your network often yields valuable insights and new coping strategies.

Rise above the fray.
Pessimism is contagious, and it’s all too easy for chronic complainers to bring others down. Don’t get caught up in the negativity. It’s possible to keep tabs on office undercurrents without feeding the grapevine with additional gripes, groans or gossip. Displaying a toxic attitude doesn’t solve anything, but it will likely make you look bad — and feel worse.

Give yourself a break.
You might believe you can’t afford to take time off. But can you afford not to? Whether you jet off to a tropical island or do a “staycation,” stepping away to recharge your batteries is healthy. Getting some distance and decompressing has a way of putting even your biggest workplace woes in perspective.

Similarly, it’s smart to take mini-breaks during the day. When tensions are running high, go for a quick stroll to collect your thoughts and cool off.

Finally, take an honest look at yourself. It’s very easy to point fingers and identify others’ annoying personality flaws. But what about your own? Try to be more mindful of how your bad habits, moods and behaviors might negatively impact co-workers….

Workstation – Building a Bridge to a Lonely Colleague – NYTimes.com and Related Article about Lonliness in General

Workstation – Building a Bridge to a Lonely Colleague – NYTimes.com

From the 28 January article

IT’S lonely at the top, or so it is said. But in fact it doesn’t matter where a person is in the office hierarchy — employees at all levels become lonely, even when other workers are all around them….

…

Because it is part of the human condition, loneliness is often regarded as a personal problem. But managers may need to view it as an organizational issue as well, according to research by Professor Barsade and Hakan Ozcelik, an associate business professor at California State University, Sacramento.

In a recent study of more than 650 workers, the two researchers found that loneliness — as reported both by the sufferer and his or her co-workers — reduces an employee’s productivity. This was true on both individual and team-oriented tasks.

Just look at what loneliness can do to a person, and you’ll see why. “Loneliness tends to distort social cognition and influences an individual’s interpersonal behavior, resulting in increased hostility, negativity, depressed mood, increased anxiety, lack of perceived control and decreased cooperativeness,” Dr. Wright says.

Professor Barsade is investigating whether loneliness may also be “contagious,” the way she has found emotions like anger and happiness to be in the workplace…

Read the entire NY Times article 

 

Feeling Left Out? Being Ignored Hurts, Even By A Stranger

From the Fri Jan 27, 2012 Medical News Today article

Feeling like you’re part of the gang is crucial to the human experience. All people get stressed out when we’re left out. A new study published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, finds that a feeling of inclusion can come from something as simple as eye contact from a stranger. Psychologists already know that humans have to feel connected to each other to be happy. A knitting circle, a church choir, or a friendly neighbor can all feed that need for connection. Eric D…

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Is your office chair killing you? – The Globe and Mail

 

Image via Wikipedia

Is your office chair killing you? – The Globe and Mail.

Excerpt from the article

…For decades, hundreds if not thousands of studies have examined the relationship between our activity levels and our health. Only recently have researchers turned their attention to the consequences of sitting at a desk all day and lying on the couch all evening.

 

MORE RELATED TO THIS STORY

• Can sitting too long really hurt my health? 

• Prolonged bouts of sitting increase cancer risk 

• Sedentary workers at risk for sleep apnea 

“We’re talking extensively and producing public health messages about what we don’t do. And we don’t talk at all about what we do do: We don’t move very much, but we do sit idle,” says Dr. Mark Tremblay, director of healthy active living and obesity research at the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario Research Institute.

The average person now spends 9.3 hours a day sitting. People who sit for six or more hours per day are 40 per cent more likely to die within 15 years compared to someone who sits less than three hours a day, even if they exercise. Obese people sit 2½ hours more each day than people of normal weight, according to data compiled by Medical Billing and Coding, a U.S.-based organization….

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Study suggests flexible workplaces promote better health behavior and well-being

Fr0m the 6 December Eureka News Alert

WASHINGTON, DC, December 6, 2011 — A flexible workplace initiative improved employees’ health behavior and well-being, including a rise in the amount and quality of sleep and better health management, according to a new study by University of Minnesota sociology professors Erin Kelly and Phyllis Moen, which appears in the December issue of the Journal of Health and Social Behavior.

“Our study shows that moving from viewing time at the office as a sign of productivity, to emphasizing actual results can create a work environment that fosters healthy behavior and well-being,” says Moen. “This has important policy implications, suggesting that initiatives creating broad access to time flexibility encourage employees to take better care of themselves.”

Using longitudinal data collected from 608 employees of a white-collar organization before and after a flexible workplace initiative was implemented, the study examined changes in health-promoting behaviors and health outcomes among the employees participating in the initiative compared to those who did not participate.

Introduced at the Best Buy headquarters in Richfield, Minn. in 2005, the workplace initiative—dubbed the Results Only Work Environment (ROWE)—redirected the focus of employees and managers towards measurable results and away from when and where work is completed. Under ROWE, employees were allowed to routinely change when and where they worked based on their individual needs and job responsibilities without seeking permission from a manager or even notifying one.

KEY FINDINGS:

 

• Employees participating in the flexible workplace initiative reported getting almost an extra hour (52 minutes) of sleep on nights before work. 

   

• Employees participating in the flexible workplace initiative managed their health differently: They were less likely to feel obligated to work when sick and more likely to go to a doctor when necessary, even when busy. 

   

• The flexible workplace initiative increased employees’ sense of schedule control and reduced their work-family conflict which, in turn, improved their sleep quality, energy levels, self-reported health, and sense of personal mastery while decreasing employees’ emotional exhaustion and psychological distress. 

“Narrower flexibility policies allow some ‘accommodations’ for family needs, but are less likely to promote employee health and well-being or to be available to all employees,” says Kelly.

 

The Brain Acts Fast To Reappraise Angry Faces

Image via Wikipedia

From the 17 November 2011 Medical News Today article

…They found that, once people had adjusted their attitude toward someone, they weren’t disturbed by that person’s angry face the next time it appeared. On the other hand, when participants were told to just feel the emotions brought on by an angry face, they continued to be upset by that face. In a second study, the researchers recorded electrical brain activity from the scalp and found that reappraising wiped out the signals of the negative emotions people felt when they just looked at the faces.

Psychologists used to think that people had to feel the negative emotion, and then get rid of it; this research suggests that, if people are prepared, it’s actually a much faster and deeper process.

“If you’re trained with reappraisal, and you know your boss is frequently in a bad mood, you can prepare yourself to go into a meeting,” says Blechert, who also works as a therapist. “He can scream and yell and shout but there’ll be nothing.” But this study only looked at still pictures of angry faces; next, Blechert would like to test how people respond to a video of someone yelling at them.

Read this article

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The Consequences Of Co-Worker Rudeness Are Far-Reaching

From the 18 Aug 2011 Health News Today article

A co-worker’s rudeness can have a great impact on relationships far beyond the workplace, according to a Baylor University study published online in the Journal of Organizational Behavior. Findings suggest that stress created by incivility can be so intense that, at the end of the day, it is taken home by the worker and impacts the well-being of the worker’s family and partner, who in turn takes the stress to his/her workplace…

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Getting Along With Co-Workers Can Significantly Increase Your Lifespan

From the 8 August 2011 Medical News Today article

Companies like Google and Zappos.com are famous for their “work hard, play hard” attitudes and friendly work environments, but are their employees healthier too? According to a Tel Aviv University researcher, a positive relationship with your co-workers has long-term health benefits. Dr. Sharon Toker of the Department of Organizational Behavior at TAU’s Leon Recanati Graduate School of Business Administration says that employees who believe that they have the personal support of their peers at work are more likely to live a longer life…

Read the entire article

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Blue collar workers work longer and in worse health than their white collar bosses

From the 21 July Eureka news alert

While more Americans are working past age 65 by choice, a growing segment of the population must continue to work well into their sixties out of financial necessity. Research conducted by the Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health and the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine looked at aging, social class and labor force participation rates to illustrate the challenges that lower income workers face in the global marketplace. The study used the burden of arthritis to examine these connections because 49 million U.S. adults have arthritis, and 21 million suffer activity limitations as a result. The condition is also relatively disabling and painful but not fatal. The researchers found that blue collar workers are much more likely to work past 65 than white collar workers and are much more likely to suffer from conditions like arthritis, reducing their quality of life and work productivity.

The study findings are reported online in the American Journal of Public Health.

The investigators calculated estimates and compared age-and occupational specific data for workers with and without arthritis, merging data from the U.S. National Health Interview Survey (NHIS), Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS) and National Death Index. They studied 17,967 individuals for the analysis out of 38,473 MEPS participants.

“Arthritis serves as a powerful lens for looking at these convergent phenomena,” said Alberto J. Caban-Martinez, DO, PhD, MPH, Department of Epidemiology and Public Health at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine and first author. “We found that blue-collar workers with arthritis are in much worse health than are all other workers, suggesting that they are struggling to stay in the workforce despite their health condition.”…

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Study: Most parents unaware of teen workplace risks

From the 27 June 2011 Eureka news alert
Most parents are unaware of the risks their teenagers face in the workplace and could do more to help them understand and prepare for those hazards, according to a new study.

Previous findings have shown that about 80 percent of teens are employed during their high school years. But the study from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s Injury Prevention Research Center and North Carolina State University highlights the role parents play in helping their children get those jobs, and making good decisions about workplace safety and health.

The paper will be published in the July issue of the Journal of Adolescent Health.

About 38 workers under the age of 18 in the U.S. die from work-related injuries each year, while an estimated 146,000 experience nonfatal injuries or illnesses.

“Because parents are so involved with their children about work, they are in an excellent position to help teens ensure that their employers are assuring good safety standards,” said Carol Runyan, Ph.D., the study’s lead investigator and director of the UNC Injury Prevention Research Center….
….Runyan and Schulman said questions that parents should ask their working teens include:

• How much training did you receive?
• If you are handling cash, have you been trained about what to do if there is a robbery?
• Are you ever alone in the workplace?
• Are there machinery or tools that could be hazardous?
• Have you been trained on how to deal with an angry customer?
• Is there an adult manager on site?

The researchers are planning additional work to determine how to get parents more informed and more involved. Parents, educators, teens and employers can find additional information at the U.S. Department of Labor website: http://www.youthrules.dol.gov/

###
Along with Runyan and Schulman, the paper, “Parental Involvement with Their Working Teens,” was co-written by Catherine Vladutiu, a doctoral student in epidemiology at UNC, and Kimberly Rauscher, Sc.D., of West Virginia University. The research was funded by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health and the North Carolina Agricultural Research Service.

Study abstract: http://www.jahonline.org/article/S1054-139X%2810%2900494-5/abstract

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