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Are you having a laugh?

Scott Sanderson | The benefits of humour in the workplace.
My old boss used to say “work isn’t supposed to be fun.” While I respected his dedication to proving his point each and every day, I never agreed with him. Work is meant to be productive, and given employee engagement and wellbeing both impact on bottom-line results, it’s in everyone’s interest to have a laugh once in a while! In most lines of work, good communication skills are important. more >>

SuperDoc: Serve up a good attitude

SuperDoc | Want positive results from your clients? Check your 'tude.
Great customer service. It’s about people and knowing what they need. It applies to all fields, from the Superhero sector to the medical world. You’d probably be quick to agree that customer service is, in particular, essential for a doctor (my day job, remember?), but you mightn’t think it so indispensable in the life of a super-hero. Well, frankly, you’d be wrong. We like happy customers too. more >>

The impact of values

Dr Mary Wyatt | Can employees' values improve their happiness, absence rates and health?
This novel study from Finland sought to understand whether people who feel good about their situation have better health and reduced absenteeism. The researchers designed their questionnaire to measure individual employees' virtues within a pulp and paper manufacturing workplace. After completing the surveys and analysing the information, the researchers found that: Pride was considered to be the most important virtue by employees. more >>

Chuck a sickie for your country

The tradition of "chucking a sickie" is well and truly woven into the fabric of Australian culture, but that may not necessarily be as bad as we think, reports WA Today. While the NSW Business Chamber issued a press release prior to Australia Day warning of the productivity dangers of unplanned absences, economics writer Jessica Irvine argues that the risks may be overblown. ''At a time when productivity and the economy are under the spotlight," wrote chamber chief, Stephen Cartwright, "employees should consider whether taking the easy way out is a wise long-term decision." Data from the 2001 National Drug Strategy Household survey warned that the cost of alcohol-related work absence was as high as $1.2 billion. However, Irvine dispells a common misconception surrounding productivity. "Productivity is not about how much you produce, but how much you produce relative to what you put in," writes Irvine. "Because productivity is defined as output per hour worked, workers chucking sickies and not working at all, does not affect the nation's productivity. Indeed, turning up to work and producing at below your usual capacity is the real productivity concern." This act - presenteeism - has been calculated by Econtech to cost our economy $26 billion per year.

Mining sector's obesity crisis

Three in four Queensland resources industry employees are either overweight or obese, says Diabetes Queensland, and shift work is a major reason why, ABC News reports. "Where you've got a high proportion of shift workers and where you've got a high proportion of workers that actually don't have a lot of opportunity throughout the day to get up and move around and walk around, they're the sort of things that are going to increase the likelihood of being obese or overweight," says Diabetes Queensland CEO Michelle Trute. The organisation predicts that following current trends 65 per cent of the Queensland's adult population will be either overweight or obese by 2020. While mining company Xstrata uses pre-employment health assessments to guage employee fitness before hiring them, they admit there's no real data tracking employee obesity following employment. Reporter David Lewis says, "Xstrata plans to launch a website called "Shape Up Online" in the coming weeks, which aims to shed more light on the lifestyle choices of individual workers, and lure more of them to the gym."

3 hours' overtime doubles risk of depression

People who work for 11 hours or longer each day are more than twice as likely to suffer from major depression, compared with those working a standard eight-hour day, reports The Independent. A six-year study of over 2,000 middle-aged civil servants established the link between regular overtime and depression - even after factoring risks associated with lifestyle, physical health and alcohol intake. The study found that people working long hours were more likely to be men, married or cohabiting, and from higher occupational grades than employees working standard hours. "Although occasionally working overtime may have benefits for the individual and society, it is important to recognise that working excessive hours is also associated with an increased risk of major depression," said the study's lead author Marianna Virtanen. Paul Farmer, chief executive of the mental health charity Mind, said, "Making employees work excessive hours is a false economy, as not only are tired, unhappy workers less productive, but they risk developing mental health issues that if handled badly, can be costly to businesses. When people get work-related depression, employers need to move away from seeing this as a sign of weakness, and realise it might also be a sign of something wrong with the workplace."

The most stressful jobs

According to the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health, 40 per cent of US workers report their job as being very or extremely stressful, CNBC reports. New data from CareerCast has ranked the 10 most stressful jobs in the US. The most stressful jobs were: 10) taxi driver; 9) photojournalist; 8) senior corporate executive; 7) public relations executive; 6) event coordinator; 5) police officer; 4) military general; 3) airline pilot; 2) firefighter; and 1) enlisted military soldier. "Not all jobs are created equal when it comes to stress levels," said CareerCast.com and JobsRated.com publisher Tony Lee. "Probably the one thing that’s overriding is the amount of control you have. People who have the least amount of control have the most amount of stress — they’re reacting to whatever is happening around them."

10 tips for improving mental health at work

Occupational health psychologist Dr Merv Gilbert offers ten tips on improving mental health in the workplace, HealthCanal.com reports. Psychological disorders are the fastest rising cause for short and long-term disabilities and they are expected to exceed 50 per cent of all claims administered within the next five years in the Canada. Dr Gilbert itemises and explains the ten most important steps to improving psychological health and safety. 1) Make managing mental health disorders in the workplace a high priority. 2) Measure the impact of psychological disorders in the workplace. 3) Identify the risks to employee psychological health. 4) Address identified workplace and workforce hazards. 5) Provide information, programs and policies that promote early recognition and response to employee distress. 6) Provide managers and supervisors with resources and supports to address workplace mental health issues. 7) Review current processes, programs and policies with a psychological health lens. 8) Help employees who are, or may be, dealing with psychological health issues to stay at work. 9) Work together to assist with returning employees off work because of a psychological health condition in a timely, safe and appropriate manner. 10) Prevent or minimise relapse or recurrence.

How job stress affects our health

Professor of medicine at Stanford, Mark Cullen, MD, discusses the multifaceted impact of the growing epidemic of job stress to the San Jose Mercury. "There are two totally different components – individual and societal," explains Cullen. "I think the unrest in our society is not just due to unemployment, but also to the vast insecurity about work and its future. As terrible as the Great Recession was, in which 8 to 10 million people lost their jobs, 200,000 million people got nervous, real nervous. So the biggest question is, how do we return to some civil society in which people have security that there will be work, and they can be productive?" Cullen has a number of helpful suggestions for people suffering from job stress. "The biggest step most people can take is to become their own advocates. To do their own job analysis and to think about what parts of their job — the demands, the control over their job and the rewards — are amenable to change. Many of us can exercise more control and leverage over our work than we realize...Many people can actually make the current situation much more compatible with day-to-day good health." Follow the in-article link to find Cullen's complete list of preventative steps.

Dark mornings affect fatigue levels

Experts say that a lack of light plays havoc with your body clock, which explains why some people find it so difficult to get out of bed on cloudy or rainy mornings, Brisbane Times reports. Bright morning sunlight is the key to inhibiting the secretion of melatonin, the hormone your body produces before you go to sleep that causes you to feel drowsy. Without adequate morning light you can be left feeling lethargic, drowsy and run-down. "We know that each day one of [the] main sources of information we get about whether it is day or night is from environmental light," said Dr Naomi Rogers, Central Queensland University associate professor in chronobiology and sleep. "When it is cold and raining and it is dark you're not getting as much of that signal when you wake up, you're not getting that big jolt of information of 'is it daytime let's switch off the night activities and go into the day' This is why it is common for shift workers can to suffer from sleep disorders. "That's why they have so much trouble falling asleep during the daytime even though they have been up at night is often when they are driving home they are getting all that morning light...Their brain is getting the wake up signal," said Dr Rogers. Experts suggest combating morning sleepiness by keeping a regular wake-up time and giving youself as much exposure to light as possible after waking.

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