Why office jobs are unhealthy

Vote up the reasons your office job secretly hates you and uncover some good reasons to start looking for other options. The average American sits 13 hours a day, most of that at work, and with that comes serious health risks, as Business Insider reports :. Even if you're engaging in your recommended 30 minutes of cardiovascular exercise every day, you're still at risk.

A simple but potentially life-saving solution is a standing desk , which reportedly burns about eight calories per hour. Even with a standing desk, you should probably still take that lunchtime walk around the block. Depending on your job, mistakes at work can be fatal.

John Eastwood, a psychologist at York University in Toronto, told The Guardian , boredom "has been associated with increased drug and alcohol abuse, overeating, depression and anxiety, and an increased risk of making mistakes.

And there are still the other side effects of boredom described, all of which have extremely adverse health effects. You may not be abusing drugs and alcohol at work, but overeating, depression, and anxiety are still prevalent in the workplace, all of which carry significant health concerns. While prolonged staring into computer screens doesn't literally melt your eyes, it still causes a fair amount of damage, so much so that it has a name: Computer Vision Syndrome or Digital Eye Strain.

While the solution is relatively simple, it's one of those things that is easier said than done, especially because there's potential for trouble if your boss walks by and catches you staring off into space on "the doctor's orders. Sick building syndrome is a phrase used to describe general symptoms related to any illness people generally experience in a building despite no specific known cause: headache, nausea, fatigue, dizziness, etc.

It was initially thought these symptoms were directly related to people's lack of desire to be at work, that they were, in essence, psychosomatic. However, people are beginning to question that way of thinking as they come to realize that, for generations, building development has put very little research into ventilation.

You get sick due to indoor air. You die due to indoor air. Reportedly, times more money is spent on research for outdoor air pollution than indoor, but there are not only the same pollutants affecting office workers, there are more.

Particulate matter, volatile organic compounds VOCs , carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, and other gases are all regularly found in higher concentrations in office buildings. Short-term stress lasting as little as a few hours can impair brain-cell communication in areas associated with learning and memory, researchers have found. It has been known that severe stress lasting weeks or months can impair cell communication in the brain's learning and memory region, but this study provides the first evidence that short-term stress has the same effect.

At least, according to Science Daily. That's wonderful news if you're "not a school person," since it essentially means school is bad for you. If you're a journalist, however, you're totally screwed. Does anyone not hate team building exercises? CEOs don't, but that's about it. Working in an office brings far more food-related temptations than working at home. This increased weight gain puts you at risk for more health problems such as Type 2 diabetes, heart disease, cancer, and high blood pressure.

Feel a cold coming on? Not having access to natural light could even be making office employees depressed. When working from home, you have lots of options to work with natural light. You can move to the brightest room in the house or even work outside. Loud phone talkers. Loud music. Keyboard pounders. We all know the common distractions that happen in an office that can derail your productivity.

For some workers, these sorts of distractions are causing increased stress, blood pressure, and employee turnover rates.

According to an article on My Virtual Medical Centre , some of the problems caused by an office environment include high levels of noise, reducing productivity, and insecurity from the lack of privacy.

Tolerating these behaviors day after day takes a toll on your mind, causing stress in the workplace. Considering all the issues that are caused by the office, it really makes you think twice about what the office is really doing to your well-being. Empower yourself and encourage flexible working to reduce these common office problems. What a great article! What I love most about working from home is being able to clear my mind by running or hiking in the middle of the day.

After that, I feel much more relaxed and refreshed. Studies on desk jockeys have almost always shown that the sedentary office workers have an increased risk of metabolic disorders like diabetes and chronic diseases like high blood pressure. And researchers have found that too much sitting time is distinct from too little exercise—meaning that even if you work out a lot even after sitting all day, it may not make much difference in reducing risk for developing multiple health problems.

Now, we have even more evidence that riding a desk all day can ruin our health and blow out our waistlines. In a new study from the University of Warwick in Scotland, researchers fitted post office workers with activity monitors for a week.