Category: The body at work

  • How to succeed in business if you’re not a morning person

    Work has moved from cow to computer, but workplaces still favour early risers and an industrial-age view of productivity.

    Camilla Kring has a PhD in Work-Life Balance and as owner of Super Navigators, makes workplaces happier by increasing the Work-Life Balance of their employees. She is specialized in creating flexible work cultures that support our differences in family forms, work forms and biological rhythms.

    This is her talk from the International Conference on Happiness at Work 2017 in Copenhagen. Flexibility is among the keys to well-being, and management must have the courage to address the flexibility of their company’s work culture because culture determines whether employees have the courage to make use of flexibility.

    The first step is to set people free from 9-5 and that work is something that only can take place at the office. Work is not a place – it’s an ongoing activity. Second, focus more on results and less on visibility. Third, give people the tools to improve their individual Work-Life Balance.

  • Fast food, slow reactions

    Healthy foodIn an interesting Danish study from 2005, two groups of truck drivers were given a controlled diet for two days. One group had healthy food, focused on stabilizing thir blood sugar levels. The other group ate junk food. Yes, the sacrifices some people make in the name of science.

    The drivers were then placed in a truck simulator that tested their driving. The study found that the drivers who lived on junk food had slower reactions. When going 70 kph. on a highway, they needed 30 meters more to notice a traffic block and stop the truck than the drivers eating healthy food. Source (In Danish).

    Who knew that burgers could be a traffic hazard…

    Question: If junk food slows down the reaction times of truck drivers, do you think it might make other kinds of workers grumpy, tired, irritable and less creative? What’s your take?