Eating food while answering calls and tapping the keyboard may look productive, but it isn’t according to research by the health insurance company, BUPA. A study of 1,000 workers last year suggested that productivity plummeted and workplace culture suffered, with at-the-desk lunch eaters feeling irritable and stressed.
From BUPA research again, sitting at our desks all day without taking a break increases our risk of chronic disease and contribute to time lost due to sickness. It seems that even small movements like standing up to answer the phone, pacing or even fidgeting can helps us burn up quite a few extra kilojoules – as much as 1,400 kj a day – and have healthier blood sugar and blood fat levels, research by the Baker IDI Heart & Diabetes Institute and the Mayo Clinic has found.
Back in the 1900s, the founder of the Ford Motors, Henry Ford, experimented with how productivity related to the hours worked in a day, and the days in a week. Ten hours delivered no more than eight hours, and six days no more than five days. And today’s “always on” world of work, in which staff pick up emails, texts and phone calls after hours reduces productivity a 2009 Stanford University study found. Being bombarded with lots of different types of electronic information reduces our attention span and prevents us from easily jump from task to task.
Kath Walters is the editor of LeadingCompany and an award-winning journalist of 15 years’ experience. Kath was previously a senior writer and editor at BRW magazine covering management, strategy, finance, entrepreneurship and venture capital across all industry sectors. In 2006, Kath won the Citibank Award for Excellence in Journalism (General Business). Follow her on Twitter @KathWalters
This article first appeared on LeadingCompany.
Andrew Sadauskas is a former journalist at SmartCompany and a former editor of TechCompany.
