The Office Pantry Blog
Our thinking about snacking and office culture as well as insight into the Office Pantry team
We just helped our sixteenth company with their Health and Wellbeing Week, and I have to say, it turned out to be our best yet.
When you look at the eating stats for their 127 staff the week after their health week, however, you might think things aren’t progressing as their staff only ate 0.7 extra portions of fruit a vegetables a day. But all signals are pointing in the right direction.
Here’s what happened during their week.
In 2013/4, 11.3 million days were lost to stress in the UK. That means work related stress cost businesses over £6.5 billion. And this isn’t even taking into account the cost of loss of productivity whilst working due to stress. Stress affects a manager’s business profits, and therefore it should be taken seriously by them.
It’s clear that some people get more stressed than others – there are some situations which cause me to get stressed which won’t cause a co-worker to get stressed. This makes it seem like the burden is on the individual to reduce their own stress – which might actually make them more stressed.
But I want to show that a manager can make a difference to their employees’ stress levels, both through their attitude and through organisational changes that can be made.
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Did you know that a study in 2014 found out that employees who work in an open-plan space took 70% more sick days than people who worked from home?
This is one of many studies that have been conducted recently that show the negative effects of open plan offices. This is alarming because 70% of offices in the US are open plan, and that number is uniform in the UK.
Whether or not open-plan offices are better than closed-space ones, the fact is that the layout of your office is probably there to stay.
What makes a company great to work for?
One that’s changing the world, in a place surrounded by great thinkers being led by a great mind, right? Well you already knew that. Heck it’s a topic that’s been written about so much that it’s now simply a given. We even wrote a guide to picking a perfect employer. But what about the companies who aren’t necessarily changing the world in a sexy way? How can they prove to their staff that they are a great place to work too?
Don’t worry, we aren’t going to say you need to stop installing solar panels and need to become Tesla, we’ll tell you some ways to create an engaged workforce and why it matters.
