This image conveys a relaxed and serene pose, reflecting the theme of self-care and mindfulness, which aligns with Macaron High’s mission.

Toni Estell, founder of Macaron High, radiates confidence and vibrancy as she prepares to launch her inaugural luxury wellness retreat designed to empower high-achieving women.

A Mission to Support Ambitious Women

Macaron High’s retreats are tailored for professionals, entrepreneurs, and leaders who often struggle to prioritize their well-being amidst career and family responsibilities.

“Our mission is to empower women to pause, reflect, and prioritize themselves,” said Estell. “We want them to see self-care not as a luxury, but as a necessity for sustainable success.”

Details of the Inaugural Retreat

The first retreat, titled Reclaim Your Energy. Redefine Your Success., will take place on March 1, 2025, at The Westin Dallas Stonebriar Spa and Resort. Participants can expect:

• The Visioning Journey: A guided process to clarify personal and professional aspirations.

• Stress Management Techniques: Tools and strategies to reduce chronic stress and restore balance.

• Luxury Relaxation: Rejuvenating experiences in a serene, world-class setting.

The Need for Solutions in a Stress Epidemic

The Problem:

Stress disproportionately affects women in high-pressure roles. According to The American Institute of Stress, 77% of people experience physical symptoms caused by stress, and women report burnout at significantly higher rates than men (42% vs. 35%).

The Solution:

Macaron High’s retreats provide:

• Personalized Self-Care: Tailored workshops that meet the specific needs of attendees.

• Stress Management Tools: Proven strategies to enhance resilience and well-being.

• Immersive Experiences: Luxury environments that encourage reflection and rejuvenation.

“Our retreats aren’t just about taking a break,” explained Estell. “They’re about realigning priorities and fostering long-term success and balance.”

Reserve a Spot

Join the movement toward balanced, intentional living. To reserve a spot for the inaugural retreat visit www.macaronhigh.com.

To learn more about stress, go to stress.org

OP-Newsfile Corp. Tue, January 28, 2025

Photo by Jill Wellington

So, to ensure you start the new year on the right foot, let’s unpack five common career mistakes and how you can avoid them.

1. Overindulging at the Holiday Party

Office holiday parties are a great opportunity to network and bond with colleagues in a more relaxed setting. However, too much holiday cheer (read: alcohol) can lead to unprofessional behavior that you’ll regret the next morning—and possibly for much longer. Nearly half of workplaces provide alcohol during holiday parties, but only 47% impose limits on how much workers can drink, according to Alcohol.org. Additionally, about 20% of employees admit to binge drinking at these events (eek).

Why It’s a Problem:

Getting drunk at a work event can damage your professional reputation. A survey by CareerBuilder found that 12% of employees have either been reprimanded or fired for inappropriate behavior at a holiday office party. Whether it’s inappropriate comments, oversharing, or simply appearing out of control, these moments can linger in the minds of colleagues and supervisors.

Action Step:

Remind yourself that even though it’s a party, you are at work and therefore constantly being evaluated. Set a drink limit for yourself—and stick to it. If you’re not sure you can resist the temptation, opt for a non-alcoholic beverage. Focus on meaningful conversations and making a good impression instead of being the life of the party.

2. Skipping Time Off to Recharge

The end of the year often brings mounting pressures to wrap up projects and meet deadlines. While it may feel like a badge of honor to power through without taking a break, skipping rest can lead to burnout.

Why It’s a Problem:

Burnout doesn’t just zap your energy; it can make you less productive, less creative, and more irritable. According to The American Institute of Stress, 83% of workers suffer from work-related stress, with burnout being a significant factor. Coming into the new year exhausted and disengaged won’t set the stage for career success.

Action Step:

Use your PTO—even if it’s just a couple of days. Block off time to unplug from work, engage in hobbies, or spend time with loved ones. A well-rested mind is better equipped to tackle new challenges.

To learn more about stress-related issues, go to stress.org

Photo by cottonbro studio

From Forbes

In fact, a new study by A Mission for Michael has revealed that a whopping 70% of Americans reported feeling stressed during the holiday period. But what can we do to alleviate the pressure?

Main Causes of Stress

According to the survey, which asked Americans what they feel contributed the most to their stress levels, financial pressure came out on top, with 64% feeling the strain. The National Retail Federation (NRF) anticipates an uptick in consumer spending this year, and estimates that shoppers will spend around $902 per person on average.

Family gatherings were also a main worry for the nation with over half of Americans finding social situations particularly stressful. This comes just weeks after the 2024 presidential election, putting a strain on family dynamics.

Other factors increasing anxiety levels include:

• Expectation of a perfect holiday: 30%
• Travel: 25%
• Work Obligations: 25%

Gratitude and Why It’s Important

But how can we combat these rising stress levels? The study found that over three-quarters (84%) of Americans agreed that practicing gratitude has helped reduce their stress and anxiety during the holiday season.

Interestingly, the CDC reported that gratitude may be the best-kept secret to help reduce stress and feel better. They said that focusing on what you’re thankful for every day could improve your health and emotional well-being.

Examples of how the US is expressing gratitude include:

• Expressing thanks verbally: 81%
• Writing thank-you notes or letters: 58%
• Practicing gratitude privately (personal reflection): 53%
• Meditation or mindfulness: 42%
• Journaling: 26%

A Mission for Michael’s Executive Director Christina Kayanan believes, “The levels of anxiety and stress during the holiday season are a clear reminder of how some Americans may be struggling. From financial pressure to entertaining family, there is a clear concern here for the nation’s mental health. Fortunately, it seems many of us are aware of the benefits of showing gratitude, not only for ourselves, but for others too.”

Kayanan continues, stating “We must prioritize mental health as a critical component of overall well-being and take proactive measures to mitigate the factors contributing to rising stress and anxiety.”

Coping Strategies During the Holidays

However, practicing gratitude isn’t the only strategy that Americans use to get through the holidays. The survey revealed that most Americans opted for healthy ways of coping, such as exercise or speaking with family.

Nearly half of the nation plans to turn to physical exercise to cope with any negative emotions. Additionally, 37% reported meditation and practicing mindfulness helped them the most in the run-up to the holidays.

Unfortunately, nearly a quarter of the nation uses alcohol or recreational substances to cope with financial pressure, spending time with family, and trying to live up to the expectation of a “perfect holiday.”

Stress and Gratitude by State

When looking at which states are suffering the most with holiday stress, it seems that Californianians are feeling the strain the most with an estimated 3 million struggling with factors such as financial pressure and family gatherings.

Although California is feeling the stress of the holidays, it appears that they are trying to counteract that by practicing gratitude as much as possible. An estimated 4 million people in the state use techniques such as expressing thanks verbally and sending thank you letters.

Visit stress.org for more stress-related information

By Michael Dinich | Wealth of Geeks

Photo by Eugene Golovesov

The holidays can be full of treasured traditions, time with loved ones and delicious meals. But the season can also bring about stressors, such as tense family dynamics, the spread of illnesses like the flu, RSV and COVID-19, financial pressures, travel snafus and unmet expectations, especially when looking through the lens of social media.

“I think we all know stress can be quite detrimental to one’s health,” says Jennifer Gonzales, PA,at Atrium Health Primary Care Waxhaw Family Medicine. “It often compounds. When we are busy and stressed, we don’t take care of ourselves. Sleep and exercise are usually the first to go. Then, we tend not to eat in a supportive way, we may buffer with things like junk food, alcohol and social media, and the problem compounds. This also coincides with cold and flu season, and stress can increase your risk of illness.”

Read on to learn Gonzales’ tips and tricks for navigating the holidays with less stress and more joy, health and ease.

1. Prioritize sleep

A lack of sleep can sabotage even the best-laid exercise and meal plans. Not getting enough rest has been shown to increase the hunger hormone, called ghrelin, and decrease the fullness hormone, called leptin, making it more challenging to make healthy food choices. And if you’re tired, you may naturally be less active and more susceptible to stress and illness.

2. Focus on consistency over perfection

If you want to manage stress and make healthy choices during the holidays and beyond, it’s time to nix the all-or-nothing mindset. Instead, Gonzales recommends determining the minimum effort you can make consistently to improve your health, both mentally and physically.

“Good sleep, a bare-minimum exercise routine and trying to eat a well-balanced diet are mainstays for me,” says Gonzales. “I am a much nicer, happier and more pleasant person to be around when I exercise regularly, so I try to block out some form of exercise most days, even if it’s only 15 to 20 minutes.”

For example, maybe you don’t have time to walk every day for 30 minutes like you typically do, but you can walk for 15 minutes most days.

“Focus on what you can do when your life gets hectic,” she says. “Something is always better than nothing.”

3. Multitask in a fun, healthy way

Gonzales suggests combining activities, like socializing and exercise or errands, to make the most of your time.

“Instead of yet another event revolving around food and alcohol, invite a group of friends to go for a walk on a greenway or run errands together while you can catch up and chat,” she says. “Or rather than completing all of your shopping online, consider hitting the mall a little early before the crowds and also get your steps in.”

4. Fill your cup

You’ve heard the saying before: You can’t pour from an empty cup. To show up as your best self this holiday season, take time for self-care, whether it’s a manicure, lunch with a friend, five minutes to write in a gratitude journal or a few moments to sip your hot coffee in the morning.

“In my family, we recently started a new tradition where every day, each person picks one or two things they are grateful for and we write it on a decorative pumpkin,” says Gonzales. “It’s really helpful to think of the simple joys in life when things are chaotic and stressful.”

5. Set limits on social media

Setting limits on your social media time can help you avoid comparing your life, (and holiday experience), to others. You’ll also have more time for the activities that improve your life, such as exercise, meal prep, game night with your family or driving around to look at holiday lights.

6. Eat mindfully

Try these tips to eat more mindfully and feel better during the holidays:

• Prioritize protein, fat and fiber to stay full and keep your blood sugar balanced throughout the day.
• Eat a protein- and fiber-rich breakfast to feel energized in the mornings.
• Focus on the foods you enjoy most. If you don’t like something on the buffet, skip it. If you start to eat something and you don’t like the taste of it, you can stop eating it.
• Bring a healthy appetizer or side dish to a gathering so you know you’ll have something healthy to eat with the rest of the meal.
• Enjoy yourself and eat what you like while paying attention to your hunger and fullness cues.
• Plan ahead before a party and decide how many alcoholic beverages you’ll drink, if any. Alternate alcoholic drinks with water to stay hydrated.

7. Focus on what matters most to you

You can make your own traditions and set boundaries this holiday season.

“There are no rules,” says Gonzales. “There’s no right or wrong way to enjoy the holidays. Think about what is most important to you and your family and focus on those things. You don’t have to sign up for three bake sales, decorate cookies with kids, make a gingerbread house, decorate ornaments, attend every Santa showing, attend every holiday event you are invited to, decorate the tree and house, or host a holiday party. Lose the ‘have-tos” and focus on what’s important to you.”

8. Seek support

The holidays can be a time of anxiety, depression and grief for many people. If you notice stress, depression or anxiety is impacting your daily life for two weeks or more, talk to your primary care provider or a licensed mental health professional for support.

For more information about stress, go to stress.org

Photo by Photo By: Kaboompics.com

Reposted from Primary Care, News

Regardless of whether one is celebrating or mourning in the wake of Tuesday’s election results, the biological effect on the body is the same, said Dr. Daniel Kirsch, president of The American Institute of Stress.

“Stress is our reaction to change,” he told the Daily News by phone. “We qualify this event as a stressful event. For everyone. Everyone.”

Both types of stress, good or bad, “can cause a heart attack,” he noted.

Here’s what you can do to take care of your stress levels:

Breathe

Mindfulness teachers and medical experts concur that simply stopping to catch one’s breath is a key starting point.

“Deep breathing is one of the best tools to fight stress. It’s free, and it’s always available,” Kirsch said.

Centering oneself around the breath is a way to combat the tendency to catastrophize, meditation teacher and author Sharon Salzberg told the Daily News.

“For people who are really, especially sharply distressed, we’re in fight or flight, we’re not breathing,” which makes it crucial to “just to be able to center for a moment,” she said. “Our thoughts cascade — this is going to happen, that is going to happen — and if we take a few breaths, we actually center again in this moment, we ground, and then we can deal with what is happening.”

Get physical

Physical activity is also very grounding, helping to use up the energy generated by stress, Kirsch noted. It sends your body the message that you’re not under physical threat. Exercising, dancing, singing, whatever it takes.

“Do something physical. Immediately,” he said. “This helps signal to your body that you are utilizing what it’s giving you. It’s giving you energy to move, it’s giving you clarity of thought.”

Stay with difficult emotions

“There are very powerful emotions arising for many people — sadness, fear, grieving, helplessness — and instead of reflexively pushing the feelings away or getting swamped by them, we try to recognize them,” Salzberg said. “Then instead of being carried away, we’re watching it with interest, and that brings insight or understanding.”

Don’t catastrophize

“The key part of mindfulness is noticing the difference between what’s happening and what we’re adding to what’s happening,” Salzberg said. “We’re having these really painful feelings and we need to deal with them, but we don’t need to make them worse.”

Take a break and stop doom-scrolling

Many have been obsessively following media in the months, weeks and days leading up to the election. Now is a good time to step back, the experts said.

“To charge your phone you have to plug it in,” Kirsch said. “To charge your brain you have to unplug.”

Do something you enjoy

Listen to music, appreciate some art, read a book, spend time outdoors — and don’t feel guilty doing something enjoyable, Salzberg said. “It’s not wrong, it’s not selfish, it’s a survival guide, really,” she said.

Connect with others

Likewise, connecting with others is helpful, “not to catastrophize together, but to have some way of not feeling so isolated,” Salzberg said.

That can include touching base with people you disagree with, psychologist Tania Israel told CNN.

Seek perspective

Essayist Rebecca Solnit had this advice for the day-to-day:

“You can be heartbroken or furious or both at once; you can scream in your car or on a cliff; you can also get up tomorrow and water the flowerpots and call someone who’s upset and check your equipment for going onward,” she wrote. “Take care of yourself and remember that taking care of something else is an important part of taking care of yourself, because you are interwoven with the 10 trillion things in this single garment of destiny that has been stained and torn, but is still being woven and mended and washed.”

Add the backdrop of lingering inflation and two international wars to the current political tension and experts say it would be surprising if anyone was feeling good about their coping skills.

“We are in a generally heightened state of stress caused by events around the world,” said neuroscientist Dr. Richard Davidson, founder and director of the nonprofit Center for Healthy Minds at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where research on Tibetan Buddhist practitioners found that meditation literally changed their brains.

Davidson also founded Healthy Minds Innovations, a nonprofit wellness organization that provides meditation and wellness guides on a free app. For the first time, wellness experts from Healthy Minds will be available live on election night, Nov. 5, to provide meditation and stress-busting tips, Davidson said in an email.

As the countdown to a new presidency unfolds, here are some expert-approved methods on how to handle anxiety and stress.

Get moving

Few things work as well as exercise for reducing stress, experts say. Physical activity promotes endorphins that boost mood while tired muscles lose their tension.

An April 2024 study also found exercise is associated with a reduction in stress signals in the brain. At the same time, the study found that signals to the prefrontal cortex were rising. That’s the part of the brain responsible for the thinking and reasoning processes that help control reactions to stress.

“It turns out human beings were designed to move and move a lot, and when we do — particularly when we are outside and amongst trees — there’s been data to suggest these all have very significant stress-relieving effects,” said Dr. Andrew Freeman, director of cardiovascular prevention and wellness at National Jewish Health in Denver, in a prior interview.

In fact, exercise can be as powerful as psychotherapy when it comes to treating clinical depression, according to a February 2024 study. It didn’t matter which type — walking, jogging, yoga, tai chi, aerobic exercises or strength training — all showed benefits, the study found.

“Figure out a way to get a physical activity in that you truly enjoy,” Freeman said.

Take control of your environment

First, recognize and then list what is truly in your control, what you can only influence and what is completely out of your control, suggested stress management expert Dr. Cynthia Ackrill, a former editor for Contentment magazine, produced by the American Institute of Stress.

“I’ve told my Debbie-downer friend that I just can’t have that type of conversation right now,” Ackrill said in an email while adding her apologies to everyone named Debbie.

“I also limit how I get the news,” she added. “I feel a lot more in control reading it versus seeing it on TV.”

You also can control your activity on social media, which all too often triggers anger and despair, experts say. Instead, take a walk, read a favorite poem, prayer or song, or pick up the phone and talk with a good friend with whom you feel safe, Ackrill advised. “Every little bit adds up.”

One way to pick out websites that may play havoc with your mental health is to look for “false urgency,” said mindfulness practitioner Jay Vidyarthi, a program guide for Healthy Minds.

“Not everything is breaking news,” Vidyarthi said in an email. “Groom your feeds to make sure you only follow sources who use language at an appropriate level of urgency for what’s being communicated. When you notice a channel treating every little thing like a catastrophe, crisis, or culture war, it’s time to unsubscribe.”

If you must engage with people who do not share your values, try to flip your perspective and see things from their view, said psychologist Tania Israel, associate dean for diversity, equity, and inclusion at the University of California, Santa Barbara’s Gevirtz Graduate School of Education, in an email.

“Perspective taking can help us shift from indignation to insight,” said Israel, who authored the book “Beyond Your Bubble: How to Connect Across the Political Divide, Skills and Strategies for Conversations That Work.”

“We don’t need to change our minds, but it can be helpful to broaden our view. It’s empowering to understand a perspective other than our own — it helps us maintain relationships and advocate for our issues,” Israel said.

Practice positives

To keep us safe, our brain is more wired for the negative, “so you have to really practice the positive,” Ackrill said. That means frequent doses of uplifting thoughts are needed to strengthen those positive neural connections. Still would be good to have a source.

Here’s the good news: Studies of twins find only about 25% of our optimism is programmed by our genes. The rest is up to us and how we respond to life’s lemons (including election uncertainty).

“There is research which indicates that optimism can actually be enhanced or nurtured through certain kinds of training,” Davidson said in a prior CNN interview.

Davidson found it took 30 minutes a day of meditation practice over the course of two weeks to produce a measurable change in the brain. “When these kinds of mental exercises are taught to people, it actually changes the function and the structure of their brain in ways that we think support these kinds of positive qualities,” he said.

Ways to grow your optimism include keeping a journal of positives and taking a few minutes each day to write down what makes you thankful. Studies have shown that practicing gratefulness improves positive coping skills by breaking the typical negative-thinking style and substituting optimism.

Don’t forget quality sleep

While you sleep, your brain is busy. It’s preparing for the next day, sorting your experiences and making new pathways for learning.

To capture newly acquired information, absorb fresh skills and form key memories — as well as retrieve them later — you need plenty of sleep to let your brain do its work. Adults need at least seven restful hours of sleep each night to stay healthy, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Getting inadequate sleep for more than a night or two can impact your ability to pay attention, learn new things, be creative, solve problems and make decisions, said sleep specialist Dr. Raj Dasgupta, an associate professor of clinical and sleep medicine and pulmonary critical care at Huntington Health in California.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t take long for sleep to affect our emotional stability, Dasgupta said: “Just one night of sleep loss impairs the ability to regulate emotions and the expression of them.”

For more information about stress, go to STRESS.ORG

Original Post CNN   By Sandee LaMotte, CNN

Photo by Edmond Dantès

The presidential election is taking a toll on the mental health of Americans. And that’s according to recent surveys conducted before the attempt on one candidate’s life and widespread calls for another to drop out of the race.

In a poll by the American Psychiatric Association, nearly three-quarters (73%) of respondents said they’re feeling anxious about the election. Another poll by Myriad Genetics found that nearly 40% said they are feeling anxious and/or depressed about the election season, and a similar share said they are “checked out” by the amount of news and social media attention on politics and the upcoming election.

Psychologists say it’s normal for people to feel heightened negative emotions during this time.

“There’s a range of emotions that people experience during this time leading up to elections that can go from fear to anger to feeling stressed out to feeling extremely sad and fearful of the future,” says psychologist Krystal Lewis at the National Institute of Mental Health. “Those emotions are all valid, and it’s OK to feel those emotions.”

And it’s important to pay attention to those feelings, especially stress, says psychologist Lynn Bufka, deputy chief of professional practice at the American Psychological Association.

Lewis says it’s a good idea to channel that stress and anxiety into ways we can make a difference. That might involve getting more information on specific candidates and the policies they support. Here, she emphasizes not to lean on what someone else thinks or says but to rely on “factual or validated news sources and websites.”

“Figure out ways to use your voice,” she says. “Use that energy to either volunteer with organizations or share some information with other people, and essentially [exercise] your right to vote.”

That said, it’s also important to pay attention to whether these feelings of stress and anxiety are overwhelming or getting in the way of daily life.

“When the stress becomes intense or long lasting and maybe symptoms develop such as prolonged sadness, worry, hopelessness, physical tensions or signs of anxiety and stress in the body, then that might be a point of intervention,” says Lewis.

In other words, if your feelings are very overwhelming and persist for a long time, seek mental health care. And if you are feeling any of those symptoms, it’s important to find ways to manage them.

People with preexisting anxiety and depression might be more likely to experience these symptoms at a time of societal uncertainty and upheaval, she adds.

For those looking to get a handle on their stress and anxiety right now, here are some strategies from Lewis and Bufka.

1. The first thing to do is understand what’s fueling your symptoms — it’s the uncertainty.

“Uncertainty is a breeding ground for anxiety and fear,” says Lewis.

“We’d like to know what’s going to happen,” adds Bufka. “We’d like to predict. So when uncertainty strikes, many people start to imagine worst-case scenarios.” And that’s not helpful, she says. “An important strategy there is to try to break that habit, not go to the what’s-the-worst-thing-that’s-going-to-happen and anticipate everything will fall apart if X happens or Y happens.”

Instead, she suggests asking ourselves questions like: “How likely is that worst-case scenario? Can I manage to cope with that? What are the kinds of things that I might again have some control over to try to manage a situation that would look like that?”

Those specific questions and one’s responses to them can help people get a sense of control. “Focusing on what we can control is a great way to help us manage our stress and anxiety,” says Bufka.

2. Another way to exercise control is to limit how much news one consumes.

Know when to step away or take a break, suggests Lewis. “What that might look like is turning off the television, news outlets, wherever you’re receiving your news,” she says.

That includes social media. “We don’t have to scroll through social media just because it’s handy and it’s in front of us because we have smartphones in our pockets,” says Bufka.

3. Do things that are meaningful to you.

That could involve connecting with other people on issues you care about and working toward a cause, says Bufka. Or it might involve “making sure that your older parents have a good meal tonight because they don’t feel up to cooking themselves,” she says, “or picking up the trash in your neighborhood just to make it a better place.”

Research shows that engaging in activities that are meaningful improves people’s overall well-being, says Bufka, particularly during times of stress.

4. Find other healthy ways to cope.

That includes doing things that bring you joy and keep you in the present moment, says Lewis, instead of worrying about what may or may not happen in the future.

“So this might be for individuals who like to be outside, [spend] time in nature, doing fun things with your family, finding joy in your daily activities.”

And don’t forget to move your body, notes Bufka. “We have extra energy in our bodies when we’re stressed and overwhelmed, and being active allows us to release that stress,” she says. “Whether it’s going on a walk, whether it’s pulling weeds in the garden, whether it’s playing soccer with your friends, playing tag with the kids — any of those things can help us release some of that physical energy and feel a little more present.”

5. Stay socially connected.

As multiple studies have shown, social isolation is bad for our mental and physical health. And it is particularly harmful if our mental health is already feeling frayed. “Staying socially connected with friends, family, peers that help support us and give us someone to turn to when we’re feeling overwhelmed — that makes a big difference in how we handle our stress,” notes Bufka.

But, she cautions, “we do have to be careful to not turn into stress spirals with other people.”

And make sure not to isolate yourself from people who have different political views from you, she adds.

“We don’t have to dive into political conversations with everybody that we meet,” she says, “but connecting with people who might actually have different points of view than us [and] seeing our shared humanity can help us to lower the temperature about what our feared outcomes are.”

To learn more about stress-related issues go to stress.org

By Rhitu Chatterjee

Photo by Sora Shimazaki

OP-Health News From NPR

September is Suicide Prevention Month — a time to raise awareness of this urgently important crisis. We use this month to shift public perception, spread hope and share vital information to people affected by suicide. Our goal is ensuring that individuals, friends and families have access to the resources they need to discuss suicide prevention and to seek help.

To learn more go to STRESS.ORG

Photo by Nick Fewings on Unsplash

What kind of unhealthy conditions do white collar workers face?

Josh Briley: White collar workers face many unhealthy conditions that generally go unrecognized. Such conditions include their jobs being mostly sedentary, spending most of their workdays sitting behind a desk or in a meeting.

Staring at computer and phone screens for multiple hours a day is also unhealthy and has been linked to increased levels of stress, insomnia and development of near-sightedness.

Recent studies have shown that people who are sedentary for most of their days are at significantly higher risk for a variety of medical conditions. Some have even compared the health risks of being sedentary for long periods of time to those of smoking.

Some companies overwork their employees. Doesn’t that save money?

JB: Companies are not saving money in asking employees to complete a workload that would realistically need two or more people, because when your staff, who are burned out and disgruntled, inevitably leave, new employees have to be recruited and trained. In the meantime, all of the productivity of the seasoned staff is lost.

It is much more cost effective to ensure sufficient personnel are in place. If several members of a department are routinely working outside of normal business hours in order to meet objectives, then that team is woefully understaffed.

There have been reports of employees being overworked to death. Is this possible?

JB: In cases in which overworked is identified as contributing to an employee’s death, it is often the result of a toxic corporate environment.

Such corporations require unreasonably long hours, allow for little to no time off, require staff to provide an output more appropriately managed by two or even three additional staff, have demanding and often micromanaging supervisors, and reward performance no matter how unscrupulous or unethical the employee’s actions and attitudes may be.

The result is staff that spend the vast majority of their day sitting in front of a computer, feeling immense pressure to perform, not sleeping or eating adequately, isolating themselves from friends and family, and obsessing over their jobs.

This combination is deadly, and it is not a matter of if, but when, such workers either suffer burnout, illness or even death.

What are ways for companies to reduce work-related stress?

JB: The most effective way to reduce stress among employees is to ensure they have the skills and authority to do their job without being micromanaged or having to run every decision past a committee or their supervisors.

Showing genuine appreciation publicly for the contributions of employees is also very effective in managing stress levels. If employees feel empowered and appreciated, they will be more productive, and report lower levels of distress.

How can companies empower their employees?

JB: The number one thing to help workers is to be respectful of them as human beings, of their time, and of their efforts for the company.

Show appreciation, not just for their work, but for them as an individual. A simple, “I appreciate you,” when speaking with employees goes a long way in helping workers reduce the level of distress they may experience.

Rather than just feeling like a “cog in the machine,” they will understand how they contribute, the value they bring to the company and they will more likely have a sense of ownership in what they do.

Are there environmental problems in many workplaces?

JB: Many offices have a lack of fresh air and sunlight, leading to decreases in vitamin D. Lighting is often harsh fluorescent lights that do not create an environment of comfort.

If an office has cubicles, then workers are housed in very close quarters, creating potential noise pollution. While it is impossible to find a temperature where everyone in the office is comfortable, in many offices the temperature on the thermostat is set more with a goal of cost savings than comfort of the employees.

The close quarters and self-contained central heat and air in most offices facilitate the spread of viruses from the common cold to COVID.

What can companies do to improve their physical work environment?

JB: Creating an office environment that is less industrial in appearance. Plants make the office feel more comfortable, while also helping to provide fresh oxygen into the environment.

They should also replace fluorescent lights with softer, more natural appearing light, which will also help the environment appear less harsh.

What should companies do about cubicles?

JB: If possible, minimize the use of cubicles, or at least give employees as much space and privacy as possible to complete their tasks with minimal distraction and ambient noise.

Some companies are developing “quiet rooms” or “meditation rooms” where workers can take a short break and decompress. When utilized properly, such areas are beneficial not just for morale, but also for productivity.