water, furniture with organic rather than geometric shapes, and wood with a visible wood grain can serve as “natural analogues” and have the same biophilic impact as the real thing.
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Pay attention to your sleep cycle. Stop sending your team texts at 10 p.m.
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Teach a meditation or exercise class. Stringer says she met one leader who took the furniture out of a conference room and put in spin bikes so he could lead spin classes once a week.
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Take the stairs. It’s good for cholesterol levels, for burning calories and for increasing collaboration at work. If you are in charge, make sure stairwells are safe, well-lit and inviting. Studies show that by simply putting up signs that explain the health benefits (i.e., a sign near the elevator that shows how many calories you can burn), stair usage increases by 54 percent.
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Stay home when you are sick. People who come to work sick are very likely spreading their diseases to colleagues— and that reduces productivity. As tempting as it is for you to “power through” and minimize sick days, the overall health risk is not worth it.
3. Banish Distracting, Noisy Behavior To reduce noise distractions office-wide, separate energetic spaces from quiet areas, says Stringer. It’s important to put in a “buffer” between conference spaces or kitchenettes (where people are likely to mill around and talk) and individual workspaces. Also, define policies for space use (i.e., only use speaker phones in enclosed rooms or designate some rooms as “quiet” spaces). As for your personal space: •
Post warnings. Establish a “do not disturb” policy so your colleagues know when they can approach you.
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Use technology to hush. Use noise-cancelling headphones or earbuds, or try one of the “white, brown or pink noise” phone apps on your phone with a set of earbuds.
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Silence the warnings. Turn off the sounds on phones or devices that beep, chirp or buzz when you receive texts, emails or messages from social media.
4. Bring Your Pet to Work It’s true, pets in the office can have health benefits, improve morale, and even increase collaboration. Pet owners may even work longer hours if they don't feel they have to rush home to care for their pets. Can’t convince your colleagues to allow pets every day? Stringer has some alternatives: •
Introduce animal babies. Bring in puppies or kittens to work for a few hours. Sam Whiteside, Chief Wellness Officer at The Motley Fool, will bring in puppies when she knows a team is working hard on a deadline, to lighten things up.
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Limit it to a day. Create a “bring your pet to work day.”
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Take it outside. Allow pets to come to family picnics or events. Get a mascot. If you’ve ever been to the Hotel Algonquin in New York (or read “The Algonquin Cat”), you know this can be a competitive advantage.
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5. Lead by Example One of the most influential tools to encourage healthy behavior at work is you. Stringer says injecting healthy changes into your own life will give you the knowledge you need to convince others to change. For example, you can: •
Eat better and bring in good, healthy foods to share when appropriate.
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Integrate movement into your day. Organize a stand-up meeting, walk while you take a conference call, or try out an exercise desk.
By working changes like these into your own life, says Stringer, you will have more energy and you will understand the changes required to behave and work differently. That means you are more likely to be listened to by the people you are trying to convince. (After all, it’s really hard to take advice from someone who isn’t actually drinking the Kombucha.)
Location, Location, Location Finally, if you are relocating, consider moving near a park or public transportation. The proximity of your home or office to parks and other recreational facilities is consistently associated with higher levels of physical activity and healthier weight status, says Stringer. The same goes for proximity to public transit. In one study, train commuters walked an average of 30 percent more steps per day and were four times more likely to walk 10,000 steps per day than car commuters. Even if you can’t control the location of your home or office, keep this in mind when planning your commute. Less time in the car translates to more time on your feet. n Leigh Stringer, LEED AP, works for EYP, an architecture, engineering and building technology firm. She is currently collaborating with Harvard University’s School of Public Health, the Center for Active Design in New York, the International Facility Management Association and the AIA DC Chapter on Health and Well-being to create new tools to connect like minds and to blur the boundaries across industries to advance and improve our wellbeing at work. She is a regular contributor to Susan Cain's Quiet Revolution Blog and Work Design Magazine. In addition to “The Healthy Workplace,” she is the author of “The Green Workplace: Sustainable Strategies that Benefit Employees, the Environment and the Bottom Line.” Find her on Twitter @string0820. Previously published in Attorney at Work. Attorney Journal Orange County | Volume 129, 2016 23