The Monster Blog

Ways to Stay Well at Work

People seem to be getting sick a lot this winter. My 1-year-old son has had one bug or another for weeks, everyone I know has a cold or the stomach flu, and I’m just knocking on wood that I stay well. Among other factors, the cooped-up environment of an office in winter is a breeding ground for germs, meaning illnesses can make the rounds quite easily.

 

But besides relying on luck or superstition, you can take other steps to help ward off getting sick. According to this article, the best way to stay healthy is, of course, to keep washing your hands. But here are three other healthy nuggets of wisdom you may have heard before but bear repeating:

 

·         Stay three feet away from your coworkers. “If you had X-ray vision, you would see a cloud of viruses around them,” says Dr. William Schaffner, professor and chair of the Vanderbilt Department of Preventive Medicine and vice president of the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases in the article. “Every time they exhale, respiratory viruses come out, extending about three feet, creating a cloud around them.” But despite your best efforts to avoid germs, keep in mind your coworkers are most contagious the 24 hours before they know they’re sick.   

 

·         Keep your hands away from your face.

·         Try a holistic health approach: Take a multivitamin, get enough sleep and exercise.

 

If all this fails, do everyone, including yourself, a favor and stay home. Presenteeism, or coming to work sick, will just spread more germs.

 

Got more tips on avoiding the latest workplace bug? Leave them below in the comments. And if you want more information on staying well at work, here are some Monster resources on the subject:

 

·         “Don’t Work Yourself Sick”

·         From the Monster Blog: “Working Sick: Come to the Office or Stay Home?”

·         From the Monster Blog: “The Fight Against Germs in the Workplace”

4 Ways to Find Laughs in This Economy

With layoffs all around, winter still biting down and bad economic news coming fast, how can workers cope? Well, laughter can be the best medicine for stress and can even boost the bottom line.

 

But in the workplace, humor needs to follow best practices. Check out these strategies for the best way to get your funny on in the office:

 

·         Ask your HR department for a class in ha-ha yoga. According to this article, this variation of traditional yoga “blends bold belly laughs and noisy 'meditation' with rhythmic clapping, waddling around like a penguin or taking part in a conga line, and deep yogic breathing.” If doing ha-ha yoga yourself doesn’t make you laugh, watching your coworkers do it probably will.

 

·         Wear a recession T-shirt to work, courtesy of RecessionGear.com (provided you’re not violating the dress code, of course). It will lighten the mood.

 

·         Tell an office-appropriate joke (here are some examples) or play a practical joke. At the same time, keep these tips on reconciling humor with respect in mind.

 

·         Next time you mess something up, find a way to laugh about it and diffuse the tension. These tips can help.

 

How do you find humor in the workplace, especially in these tough economic times? Leave us a comment below.

What Role Does Religion Play in Your Work Life?

A recent Gallup survey asked Americans if religion played an important role in their daily lives. The results, broken down by state, found the top 10 states where people said yes to this question were in the South, while the six New England states were all among the bottom 10. (Other states in the bottom 10 were Alaska, Washington, Oregon and Nevada.)

This is no surprise, but it is interesting. A friend who lived in Texas said the first thing people asked her was what church she belonged to. That has never happened to me here in Massachusetts. As for me, I consider myself a very spiritual but not very religious person, although I do go to church. I also believe faith is a personal thing.

So I started thinking about the role religion plays in a major part of many of our lives: The workplace. It’s a topic we’ve covered before, but I’m interested to hear what you have to say. Leave a comment below about the places where your religion and work life meet (or don’t meet), and if you’re comfortable doing so, tell us where in the country you live.

In the meantime, these resources provide an overview of the topic:

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•         “Mixing Work and Religion”

• •       From the Monster Blog: "Do You Have a Prayer at Work?"

• •       From the Monster Blog: “Are Workplaces Getting More Religious?”

How to Talk About Unemployment

For January 2009, the unemployment rate soared to 7.6 percent, the highest since September 1992, and almost 600,000 jobs were cut, the most in one month in 30-plus years. According to this article, 3.6 million jobs have been lost since the beginning of 2008. That’s a lot of people out of work.

There are all sorts of implications here, from the loss of benefits to not being able to afford food or medication to the skyrocketing foreclosure rate. But for those who have been let go, one of the first things to deal with is, “How do I tell people I lost my job?” And for those who’ve been spared the ax, what do you say to those who have not been so fortunate?

According to this blog post, the best strategy, for your own mental health, is to just tell people, especially those nearest and dearest to you. (In a related story, here’s a guide of what not to say to your kids.) And since I know several people who have lost their jobs, some of them close relations, I found this article on how to talk about it from the perspective of a survivor really valuable.

If you’ve been laid off, how did you tell people? And if you know someone who has been laid off, how do you talk to them? Leave a comment below.

Enough talking. What do you do now that you’ve told everyone? These resources can help:

·         “Eight Tips for Job Hunting During the Recession”

·         “Laid Off? Eight Effective Ways to Respond”

·         “Ten Ways to Keep Busy Between Jobs”

·         From the Monster Blog: “Top 5 Things to Do After a Layoff”