Many office workers experience problems or are uncomfortable sat at their office desk. These problems can be easily overcome. If you feel you require a particular adjustment to carry out your role effectively you should speak to your manager who should be happy to assist you in making any changes.

Some employees may find normal day-to-day activities difficult due to limitations to their physical capabilities; this could be due to a medical condition, disability or impairment.

Some issues may be easily resolved by working with other colleagues e.g. a colleague using crutches will find it impossible to carry a hot drink for themselves, so another colleague could fetch a drink for them when they get their own; this would easily overcome this problem.

Colleagues with Sensory Impairments can often feel isolated from other colleagues because they can miss out on the day-to-day interaction that colleagues take for granted, e.g. sharing a joke. It is particularly important to ensure that colleagues with sensory impairments can fully participate in meetings.

Sometimes minor changes can make a big difference e.g. colleagues with a hearing impairment often need to face the person they are talking to, in order to be able to lip read.

Work related injuries are a common occurrence in the office environment. Health and Safety Executive statistics show that slips, trips and falls are the most common accident in the workplace, relating to over a third of all major injuries reported at work.

The most common causes of slips, trips and falls are:-

Unsuitable floor coverings, including loose or torn carpet (especially on stairs)
Uneven floor surfaces
Wet floors
Changes in levels
Trailing cables
Poor lighting
Poor housekeeping
Lack of attention when ascending or descending stairs

Everyone can be affected; whether employees, visitors, or contractors anyone in the workplace is at equal risk. There will be particular individuals who are at greater risk within the workplace e.g. colleagues or customers whose physical ability or visual impairment may affect their ability to move safely around the premises; children and the elderly are also a higher risk.

Things can be done to reduce the risk of accidents in the workplace. You should actively look for slip and trip hazards around the workplace, including floor coverings and their condition, uneven floors, trailing cables and areas that are sometimes slippery, due to spillages. You should also include any outdoor areas and keep in mind that changes in weather conditions may be a factor.

Make sure you start and end your day with water. You should drink a glass before you go to bed and in the morning when you wake up.

You shouldn’t wait until you feel thirsty before you have a drink of water, as your body will already be dehydrated by this point.

Take a 2 litre bottle of water to work with you to leave on your desk, try to have a glass every hour.

Have a drinking buddy at work, so you can help remind each other to keep hydrated; you could take it in turns to bring one and other a glass of water every hour.

When you’re exercising, you should make sure you drink water before, during, and after.

When you perspire you lose a lot of water; you should therefore drink more water when it’s hot, when you exercise and in dry environments.

If your office doesn’t have water coolers you should suggest it to your manager, after all keeping hydrated improves concentration; they can’t argue with that!

Make sure you start and end your day with water. You should drink a glass before you go to bed and in the morning when you wake up.

It is essential that you keep your body well hydrated whether your exercising or at work. An office environment can be especially dry as many larger companies have air-conditioners on full all day. It’s so easy to keep hydrated, even more so at work where you have access to free water coolers, but many people still fail to do so.

When you don’t get enough water your body is exposed to many different health risks in the short and long-term. Long-term term effects of dehydration can affect blood pressure, digestion, circulation, and kidney function .Short term effects usually start with a headache; this is when the brain is squeezing fluid from its tissues. When your body is dehydrated it can’t perform at its best, you will feel tired and your concentration levels will drop; you will generally feel lethargic.

If your one of the many people that doesn’t consume enough water you should try, even just for a day, to drink the recommended 2 litres and see what a difference it makes to the way you feel. You will find it makes a big difference; you will feel more awake, your headaches may disappear and you will generally feel a lot healthier and be more productive at work.

A poor diet can affect not just your home life but also your work. People who eat healthy and exercise are usually more productive and have higher concentration levels than those that live on junk food and don’t get any exercise. There is a strong link between what food you put into your body and how you perform and feel.

A good healthy breakfast definitely sets you up for the day, it can help improve not only physical performance but also mental performance; it can increase your concentration and make you feel wide awake and full of energy. Your breakfast should include; whole-grain bread or cereal, fruit, milk or yogurt, and fats; protein-rich foods are very important in the morning as they help prevent blood sugar highs and lows which leave you feeling tired and hungry by mid-morning.

You should eat a healthy lunch but not too much, eating a large meal for lunch will leave you feeling tired, bloated and sluggish all afternoon which is definitely not good for performance. You should avoid eating sugary refined carbs as they can cause a blood sugar high and then a low, which will leave you feeling drained and lethargic.

Most people who work in an office have access to the internet. Some companies allow employees to use the internet for personal reasons, although most have a policy on Internet use, limiting it to breaks and lunch hours. However many employees abuse these written policies and continue to surf the net during their working day. A lot of companies have tracking systems in place so they can monitor every website you visit, and every email you send, so you should always be cautious as to what websites you visit. A lot of companies now block websites which are unsuitable, like Facebook, so employees are restricted in what they can access.

When companies trust their staff to use the internet sensibly it can actually increase morale and productivity, however this trust should not be abused. A few minutes every so often to check on the latest weather forecast or to pay an online utility bill, shouldn’t be a sackable offence. However, there have been incidents when employees have been found to be spending over half their working day on the internet, some people have even been found running an online business, such as eBay, from work, which obviously would be classed as gross misconduct.

If you’re fed up of your current job, maybe you should do a self assessment to see where you want to be, what role would suit you best and what are your qualities and weaknesses. Deciding what’s best for you depends on what’s happening in your life and what you enjoy doing.

At a time like this, it’s important that you understand who you are and what you want to do; as this will help you evaluate the next move in your career and will prove useful in your job search and in producing a good CV.

You should evaluate your attributes, take some time out to think about what motivates you what makes you want to go to work apart from the money. Many people are not just motivated by money but also by a need to help others; some are motivated by being the best at what they do, some enjoy working in an office whilst others love to work outdoors.

The best job is the one that you will enjoy, a job that actually makes you want to get up in a morning and go to work. We spend an awful lot of years working, it’s therefore very important to your happiness that you enjoy your work.

When going for an interview it is essential that you are well prepared, take some time before to plan your answers and have lots of examples ready. However there are good interviewers and bad interviewers, each will look for different things. Below are the differences the two will look for. If you familiarise yourself with these it could help you a great deal in your interview.

Good interviewers:
Are primarily interested in whether you will be competent in the job
Try not to be unduly influenced by their personal tastes and preferences
Will take notes during the interview so they can base their decision on information about your experience and achievements, rather than their subjective impression of how you came across
Will use ratings scales to score you
Base their questions solely on the job requirements
Understand that you will be nervous and try to put you at your ease
Want to see the best of you

Bad interviewers:
Judge you on your performance in the interview
Place undue emphasis on confidence, appearance and body language
Rely on their gut feelings when making a decision
Are unaware of their prejudices
Act as amateur psychologists, analysing your behaviour too deeply
May try to trip you up with trick questions
Are strongly influenced by whether or not they like you
May play on your nervousness and try to make you feel uncomfortable
Want to catch you out

For those people who would like to improve their health and fitness, but find it hard to make time, the answer could be a new exercise machine which is linked to your computer and mouse.

If you spend several hours a day sat at your office desk, or enjoy surfing the net at home on an evening you could be making use of this new device and keep fit whilst you work. The stepper device fits neatly under your desk and can help you to burn up to 400 calories an hour. It’s an excellent idea for those who find exercise boring or simply don’t have the time to work and go to the gym.

People who work in offices generally don’t get much exercise during the day, this device is good as it keeps you moving and your circulation it can help reduce the risk of DVT and also improve the muscle tone in your legs.

There are several different modes you can set the stepper to; in trainer mode you can set it so that when you stop stepping your mouse and/or keyboard will stop working, once you resume stepping your mouse/keyboard will resume. Or you can set it to normal mode so you can choose when you step.

It is an excellent idea to keep you active during long days at the office desk.

Here are some more ways you can incorporate health and fitness into your working day. Making little changes can make a big difference to your health.

Take the stairs – A lot of people avoid taking the stairs and instead take the lift. Even if you only work on the second floor, walking up the stairs several times a day will help to keep you active. If you work on the ground floor you could still use the stairs as part of your fitness plan. I’m sure you could find an excuse to walk up the stairs a few times a day.

Water - Water is essential to a healthy body. The majority of people don’t drink anywhere near the recommended 2 litres a day. If you have a drinks fountain in your office you could aim to drink a glass every hour. Once you start drinking more water you will soon notice the difference it makes to your general health.

Walking- Pedometers are very cheap in price and help to keep you motivated. It’s recommended we each take 10,000 steps a day to be healthy. You could wear one all day and see if you can increase your steps throughout the day, just walking from your office desk to the printer will count!