"Kat Keane" BiziNet™ Articles

For many people it's been a tough year to say the least. More than ever people are looking forward to 2020 ending and starting a new in 2021. It's understandable to want to forget and move on from the events of 2020, but let's do it safely. Figure 1 (below) outlines a few personal considerations going into the "Silly Season". Essentially, the Silly Season is about having a break from the pressures of work and spending quality time doing whatever it is that makes you happy.

Is posture important? In the context of sitting at a desk all day, let's just say it isn't as important as we once thought. In fact, the focus should be less on ergonomics, postural assessments and training, and more on movement, challenging and changing pre-existing ideas of posture through education and improving locus of control. Let me explain.

It's normal to feel stressed at work from time to time. But for some people, the stress becomes all-consuming, leading to mental and emotional exhaustion, cynicism and ineffectiveness in the workplace. This is known as burnout. Burnout is not classified as a medical condition, however, burnout is included in the 11th revision of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-11) as an occupational phenomenon. The inclusion of occupation burnout in the ICS-11 reflects that burnout is a work-based syndrome caused by chronic stress, validates its existence and thus can inform research and treatment.

Sedentary activity contributes to approximately 80% of time at work. This statistic is a reflection of how work life has changed since the introduction of the "technology age"; there are a lot more "desk jobs" than ever before. As a result, workplace productivity, health and wellbeing is significantly affected.

Current research demonstrates that sedentary work and lifestyle behaviours has a profoundly negative affect on our health status; the message is loud and clear - sitting in your office chair may now be seen as a high risk activity. While sedentary workers are not exposed to hazards associated with more physically demanding occupations, they are exposed to an increased risk of lifestyle diseases (for example, obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and cancer to name a few), and musculoskeletal conditions, such as neck and low back pain, and in particular, arthritis. This is due, in part, to the prolonged and uninterrupted sedentary behaviour of which typically comes with a "desk" job.