Dr. Jerome Congleton has many years of experience working in Ergonomics, including eight years of work for ALCOA, his current work for Neutral Posture, Inc. as a research and development consultant and his current teaching position for the Texas A&M University System Health Science Center's School of Rural Public Health. Throughout his experiences, he noticed trends in the workplace that have had traumatic effects on individuals and companies.
One of these trends, obesity, has become one of primary concern. Obesity has life altering health effects to those with the condition. Concerns include, but are not limited to: diabetes, cardiovascular issues and overall lifestyle limitations. Employers should be interested in the wellness of their workforce and providing a healthy environment for their workers for many reasons, including productivity improvement.
While it is generally recognized that healthy habits result in an improvement in overall wellness, it is not as common to notice that small changes in daily life activities can alter health outcomes as desired. Individuals typically enjoy instant gratification, if we do something healthy we want to be healthy now, we do not want to have to work at it. Small modifications can be made in the workplace to slightly change how we work, but greatly improve our health.
While this paper will focus on how wellness can be achieved in the workplace, the principles can be implemented individually or collectively as an organization.
