Exercise in the Workplace - Essay Example

Running Head: EXERCISE IN THE WORKPLACE. Reducing long working hours and reforming working practices. Name of the Student Institution Date Outline Thesis: I strongly agree that companies should allow employees to exercise during work hours. 1. Rehabilitation programs during work hours reduce pain in employees having subacromial impingement syndrome. a) Programs involving strengthening, cryotherapy and stretching in the work place reduces pain and physical complications in employees. b) Exercise enhances physical fitness and self-confidence and promotes team building through strengthened interpersonal relations. 2. Worksite health interventions that involve reduced work hours and participation in physical exercise reduces sickness absence costs. a) Exercise in work place reduces cases of employee absenteeism. b) A person will be healthy by doing exercise and eating well. c) Exercise reduces over weight, and related complications like high blood pressure. 3. Physiological effects related to doing light work without exercise. a) Exercise is a useful intervention in reducing fatigue in workers doing less heavier jobs b) Stress levels in employees can be reduced through exercise. Introduction Handling long hours and adjusting working patterns can be helpful not only to businesses but also individuals and families which can help to improve work –life balance and also bring a positive impact to the work place. Companies are required to ensure that they build trust in their employees by creating a friendly working environment that allows participation by all. The level of health among employees depends on how much time or money the company has invested in its employees. Many organizations encourage employees to do exercise in the workplace in order to improve working environment. Exercise in the workplace is associated with a number of advantages as discussed below (Waika & Bradshaw, 1995). The advantages of exercise in the work place are many. Healthy employees will perform their duties with comfort. According to (Lara et al, 2008), a person will be healthy by eating well and by doing exercise. Exercise in the workplace help to reduce level of Absenteeism among employees. When employees are healthy, they become resistance to illness that spread from person to person especially in the workplace. Many companies have realized that having recreational centers on site or sponsoring employees to participate in fitness activities have helped employees improve their health. Having fitness program on work sites help to reduce absenteeism and employee turnover and hence leading to increase in employee productivity and good behavior. Employees who do exercise in the work place acquire higher level of energy to perform work especially in manual jobs. Traditionally, manual jobs are supposed to generate high level of production and that is why employees involved in such jobs are encouraged to do exercise. Important to note is that, employees in manual work who have high levels of energy, set for themselves higher standards at work. This is an advantage to the company because such employees achieve higher levels of production. Employees exposed to exercise will demonstrate job satisfaction since they are given opportunity to relax their minds. Thus, regular exercise in the workplace does more good to an employer whose focus is on achieving higher levels of production always. According to (Yancey et al, 2008), reducing weight is an important experience since it relieves a person from many complications associated with overweight. Research shows that exercise helps to reduce weight because when a person does physical activities regularly, the calories in the body burn up. Physical exercise also reduces the chances of getting diseases like high blood pressure, diabetes and cancer. This helps a person to live for long and in good health. For a company to maintain high level of productivity, its workforce should be in good health. Losing a highly motivated employee because of health complications that result from failure to do exercise is really disturbing. Therefore, companies should encourage exercise in the workplace. Exercise is known to reduce stress level in employees. It fires up different chemicals in the brain, which makes a person feel happier and relaxed than before. A Person may be damaged mentally and physically when exposed to high levels of stress. Stress can also affect a person’s job in different ways. An employee working under high stress levels for instance, will not attain the desired level of production and he or she is likely to make errors that should not have occurred. Such errors may cause lose to the company, and it is why employees should be allowed to participate in exercises in order to keep their minds active. According to ( Griffin-Blake & DeJoy, 2006), a company that encourages its employees to participate in programs that allow them to do exercise while in the workplace help to improve level of interpersonal relationships among employees. When employees interact with one another during the time of exercise, it gives them a sense of team building. Team building and developing work groups that are productive is important in the organization’s development process. It is important to note that improving relationships among employees boost their morale to work and also reduce employee turnover. Employees will understand better what they are supposed to do at the right time and this will reduce time wastage which may cause employees’ inefficiency at the workplace ( Henderson, Washington & Watkins-Butler, 2011). Employees who are physically fit have high level of self-confidence. It is because they are convinced that they can do what it takes to get what they want in life. Self-confident employees are ready to strive higher to achieve the desired goal. Self-confidence also drives employees to challenge themselves and work hard in order to attain higher achievement levels in the place of work. Therefore, an organization that values employees’ participation in exercises at the workplace will benefit a lot from them because they are always ready to achieve the best out of their work. Important to note is that employees who are fit set goals and achieve them. For instance, extraordinary body fitness in many cases requires that a person sets and achieves goals that help him or her remain fit. Such employees will always live to achieve the goals they set in the workplace and this is a very important skill. In any organization, an employee who has demonstrated ability to set goals and achieve them adds value to that organization (Yancey et al, 2008). Therefore, although it is believed that physical exercise in the workplace improves employees’ psychosocial and physical conditions, scientific prove on effectiveness if these programs have remained limited. It is in this respect that an exercise in the work place has been discredited and many companies have not adopted it either because of the following reasons. First, establishing fitness center on work site has proven to be costly. Facilities used in such centers are expensive to buy and maintain. Companies fear to invest in this area since productivity among employees is not guaranteed after they do exercise in the work place. The argument is, employees can still do exercise away from the workplace and transform what they acquire to their daily work activities and still achieve high level of production. As much as it is argued that exercise helps to reduce weight and therefore good in the workplace, it is important to understand that overweight does not obviously mean that a person may not be in shape. Some exercises have proven not to reduce body fat. Balanced diet and simple exercises like having a walk can help a person to maintain body fitness. These too, can help to improve the performance of an employee on job without necessarily having to do exercise in the place of work ( Bertera, 1991). Encouraging employees to do exercise while on work to some extend reduces productivity among some employees. Some employees take a lot of time doing exercise and forget that they are supposed to perform their duties and complete on time. Therefore, they are not able to meet targets set by their employer. Failure to deliver results by employees exposes the company to risk of not attaining its profit margin. It is because of this trend that many companies have not provided recreational facilities to their employees in the workplace. Conclusion Therefore, although long working hours has been found to reduce employee productivity and lowered the quality of work done due to lack of exercise in the workplace, it is necessary to appreciate the fact that employee productivity depends on other factors too. However, to a larger extent, employees should utilize the opportunity to exercise in the workplace without necessarily taking it for granted in order to achieve its intended purpose. When well coordinated, exercise in the workplace provides greater opportunities to employees as far as building their career is concerned. References Waikar, A. M., & Bradshaw, M. E. (1995). Exercise in the workplace? Employee preferences. International Journal of Manpower, 16(9), 16-30. Henderson, L., Washington, P., & Watkins-Butler, A. (2011). Training for Business Success: Does Diversity Training Improve Productivity, Performance, and Fair Promotions?. PDFCast. org. Craft, L. L., & Perna, F. M. (2004). The benefits of exercise for the clinically depressed. Primary care companion to the Journal of clinical psychiatry, 6(3), 104. Lara, A., Yancey, A. K., Tapia-Conye, R., Flores, Y., Kuri-Morales, P., Mistry, R., & McCarthy, W. J. (2008). Pausa para tu Salud: reduction of weight and waistlines by integrating exercise breaks into workplace organizational routine. Preventing chronic disease, 5(1), A12. Griffin-Blake, C. S., & DeJoy, D. M. (2006). Evaluation of social-cognitive versus stage-matched, self-help physical activity interventions at the workplace. American Journal of Health Promotion, 20(3), 200-209. Yancey, A. K., McCarthy, W. J., Taylor, W. C., Merlo, A., Gewa, C., Weber, M. D., & Fielding, J. E. (2004). The Los Angeles Lift Off: a sociocultural environmental change intervention to integrate physical activity into the workplace. Preventive medicine, 38(6), 848-856. Bertera, R. L. (1991). The effects of behavioral risks on absenteeism and health-care costs in the workplace. Journal of occupational medicine.: official publication of the Industrial Medical Association, 33(11), 1119. Read More