The days of starting your office hours at 9 and ending at 5 is no longer a reality. The rapid changes in technology and communication channels have completely shifted the way we work. For example, instead of sending emails during working hours, we can now send and receive emails at all times on smartphones or call and message our colleagues via mobile applications. Not to mention the instant update on business or marketing news. On one hand, these technologies benefit the lifestyle of office workers by providing tools to communicate more efficiently, with less time consumption.
However, these benefits come at a price of having to handle extreme pressure to live up to social expectation to get up-to-date with what’s going on in the world, leaving the pre-conceived belief that you will fall behind the rest of the world within one second if you don’t check your phone. As a result, it is no surprise to see office workers of the younger generation becoming heavily addicted to things like smartphone, tablets, notebook, and computers while spending less time with family or even taking good care of oneself.
Office workers may find it difficult to look after their health and well-being due to the requirement of having to work long hours to complete daily tasks at the office. That overtime work turns into a cycle of unhealthy habits; poor diet and insufficient time to exercise, for instance. This types of behavior, if ignored or not altered in time, may lead to one of the most common sicknesses of office workers, known as “Office Syndrome”. Office Syndrome includes a variety of serious illness which may have a lifelong effect on people such as gastroesophageal reflux disease, trigger finger, herniated disc, bladder inflammation and more.
Similarly, the findings of Cigna’s 360° Well-Being Score Survey reveals insights that align with the lifestyle trend, explaining that office workers who are between 30-45 years-old are being exposed to the extreme amount of pressure at the workplace. The survey also points out that these are the groups whose average score of health and well-being is at the lowest. When compared to other age groups, more than 88% of them have a relatively high level of stress, caused by extreme pressure at the workplace and from not spending enough time with family.
Therefore, office workers in this era should be aware of the risks associated with poor quality lifestyle and find a preventative solution to handle the possible illness that may come with getting older. To do so, office workers may start tracking their own habits at the workplace to see the areas that could be improved or opt for a health insurance plan that provides comprehensive coverage of critical illnesses like office syndrome, which is an illness caused by the modern working lifestyle.
