Wellness in the workplace: How to keep happy, healthy and wise

5 July 2013 by in Lifestyle

We note with interest yet another recent article in Marketing Week that is relevant to what we’re up to at Infinite Ideas.

Apparently the poor old marketing professional is somewhat under the cosh. 39% of marketing professionals are now working 50+ hours a week. That’s up from 24% two years ago and a national average of 28%.

Cynics could question the validity of such surveys. You wonder how the questions are framed. Might some people not rather exaggerate the hours they put in? Does going to the pub for 4 hours on Friday night with work colleagues count as overtime? But we’ll park the cynicism – there’s no doubt that in these troubled economic times virtually everyone in every sector is having to put the extra hours in just to stand still (except for fat cat bankers – oh, there’s that old leftie again!)

But all these extra hours can have a negative effect on employees. Obviously they see less of their partners and families, but their health can suffer too through stress, lack of exercise and poor diet – to say nothing of over reliance on drink, drugs and cigarettes. Enlightened companies should recognise that they have a duty of care to their employees’ wellbeing.

That’s why we’ve just published The Corporate Wellness Bible with the very wonderful Kate Cook, Wellness expert and all round good woman. Her training as a nutritionist has led to her philosophy that – in addition to good eating – mental attitude, happiness, fitness, time management and sleep are all necessary for a healthy, happy and motivated workforce. And the good news is the advice it offers is easy to put in to practice more or less straight away.

If you’d like some more information then please contact david@infideas.com. He’ll put his bucket of claret down for long enough to send you some details on Kate’s book.