Why Active Living at Work?

Understanding Workplace Wellness

• The Impact of the Workplace on Health
• The 3 Major Contributors to Wellness

The Impact of the Workplace on Health

Poor working environments and employment conditions can have a negative impact on health. It has been proven that people who have more control over their work environment and fewer job stress-related demands tend to be healthier.

This, safe, healthy, and supportive working conditions and environments are being recognized as important elements that contribute to the optimal health and well-being of Canadians.

Health at work is aimed at fostering wellness - the personal experience of physical and mental health. Organizations are beginning to be held accountable for ensuring that the environment in which people work contributes to health not disease.

To foster wellness, organizations need to understand the precursors to disease, particularly those related to stress. Home stress and job stress both affect wellness - and the measure of wellness is usually self-reported health status.

There are three major contributors to wellness:

1. Health practices - the voluntary activities of individuals that affect their health;
2. Personal resources - the psychological and social means by which people cope with their stress; and
3. The environment - the setting in which people are trying to cope, including their physical surroundings, the conditions in which they work, their circumstances, and the opportunities available to them to maintain or improve their health.

The work environment can help or hinder an individual's efforts to reduce stressors in his or her life. Workplace stress or job-related stress can be attributed to employers if:

1. The workplace defeats the employees' sense of control over their work and their health which, in turn, reduces motivation to pursue positive health practices; and
2. The workplace makes it difficult to maintain a healthy lifestyle and pursue positive health practices.

The promotion of a healthy and active lifestyle must move into the workplace. Workplace wellness goes beyond the health of the individual employee - it effectively takes the pulse of an entire organization.