Every year in Australia, over 300,000 Australians visit their local GP for influenza-related illnesses. With the recent outbreak of the new novel coronavirus now known as Covid-19, it has become increasingly important to ensure we all do our part to maintain a healthy office environment to reduce the spread of influenza type illnesses. In this publication, we take a closer look at how you can maintain office wellness, some general tips, and tricks at avoiding the flu, and how modern office design ideas can be incorporated in your workspace to increase productivity and promote general wellbeing.
Get in touch with Future Fitouts today to enhance your workplace with modern and exciting office designs and to see how healthy office design can not only help with avoiding the flu but also aids in increasing productivity and employee happiness as well.
Office Wellness Tips for Avoiding the Flu
When we look at office wellness and general wellbeing in an office environment, two main areas play an important role – Creating a healthy workplace environment and ensuring everyone practices good office hygiene. The best office designs and healthy office working environments often incorporate some form of proactive design measures to ensure a healthy office environment. We often get asked ‘How to prevent the flu in an office environment?’ Let’s take a look at some tips tricks for avoiding the office flu at work and in general.
Healthy Office Practices for Avoiding the Office Flu
In a workplace environment, we often work close to our colleagues, with regular visits from clients, family or friends. With the day to day tasks that fill our calendars, it can be hard at times to monitor and practice good office hygiene. Maintaining a healthy office, however, is something that everyone in the office should work together to achieve. At Future Fitouts, we strongly believe in healthy and sustainable living in all aspects of what we do; From the way we design our fitouts, to the way we maintain our workplace environment. We asked our team members what they had to say about keeping healthy while at work, here are some of the things we do in our office;
- Eat Healthy – While it’s important to eat healthily, in an office environment, the temptation to eat unhealthily is always present as our favourite fast-food restaurants all around us. If you are finding it difficult to break eating habits, try to plan a day or two a week where you can bring some healthy snacks or food from home rather than heading to your local pizzeria.
- Stay Hydrated – It’s easy to lose track of time when you are caught up with a task. Ensuring you remain adequately hydrated will help maintain your concentration levels and work towards keeping you healthy.
- Take Breaks – Head out for breaks where time allows, if it’s a nice day outside, consider a nice stroll to your closest park.
- Practice Good Workplace Posture – Ensure you are sitting comfortably in an ergonomic chair where possible and ensure that there is always sufficient distance between your computer screen and your eyes. As a guide, you shouldn’t have to squint to read text and your screen should be about an arm’s length away.
- Be Self Aware – This encompasses many things from working with sufficient natural light, avoiding close contact with co-workers who might be sick, regularly washing your hands and disinfecting work surfaces. General awareness is the best way to avoid the office flu.
How to Prevent the Flu General Tips
Whether you are working from home or at the office, on your daily commute, or spending the day visiting clients, family or friends, it’s important to maintain good health practices no matter where you are.
- Get a flu shot – Research has shown that the flu shot will help with avoiding the flu by around 40-60 percent. While not always perfectly matched with the seasonal strains going around, the flu shot can often reduce the severity of symptoms for a significant portion of patients.
- Practice Good Hygiene Habits – One of the best ways for avoiding the flu and the coronavirus is to practice good hygiene habits. This includes regularly washing your hands with soap for a full twenty seconds, avoiding close contact with others who are sick, always using a tissue to cover your nose and mouth when sneezing or coughing, and avoiding touching your eyes, nose or mouth before washing your hands.
- Maintain Your Immune System – Maintaining your immune system by consuming a healthy diet, regularly exercising, reducing stress and ensuring you get enough sleep all aid in preventing and reducing the severity of the flu.
- Stay Home While You Are Sick – If you are feeling unwell, take the time needed to rest and stay home.
- Avoid Close Contact – With the coronavirus on the news of late, the term ‘social distancing’ is at the forefront of everyone’s minds. Social distancing, however, is not a new concept, we’ve all been practicing it to degree every time there is a case of flu. Avoiding close contact and ensuring there is enough space between yourself and others can help protect everyone from spreading the illness further.
- Disinfect Surfaces – Using an alcohol-based sanitizer or disinfectant of at least 60% alcohol content to regularly disinfect and clean surfaces can help kill the flu or a coronavirus before it has the chance to spread.
Design Ideas for a Healthy Office
Working long hours in a workplace environment that doesn’t spark joy can certainly take a toll on productivity and general office wellness. Studies have shown that workplaces that incorporate healthy office design ideas increase productivity, reduce employee-related costs and improve employee motivation and morale. As the traditional office environment continues towards more flexible working arrangements with employees not necessarily having a set workstation, modern office design is continually adapting to cater to the changing workplace dynamics.
Ergonomic Furniture – Ensuring your office furniture is both ergonomic and functional plays a big role in the physical and mental wellbeing of your team.
Greenery for Wellbeing – Research finds that adding greenery to a workspace can significantly increase employee wellbeing. Avoid plastic greenery and instead, go for something living that requires minimal maintenance.
Open Up with Glass – The feeling of being ‘closed-in’ can be draining and take a toll on our health. Incorporating glass that allows natural light to filter into your workplace will make your office environment shine.
Customisable Workspaces – With activity based workplaces on the rise, ensuring your workspaces are dynamic and flexible is key to ensuring your team has what it needs to complete tasks now and into the future.
Rethink Amenities – Instead of stocking your communal kitchen with chocolate bars, consider some fresh fruit, and healthy juice options.
Relaxation Areas – Consider adding in entertainment areas for employees to relax or open up a book on their break. A communal sofa to bring that ‘homely’ feeling into your workspace, or a game and music room to build some camaraderie.
Fitouts for Medical Centers
At Future Fitouts we consistently design and deliver workplaces Brisbane wide that are fresh, innovative, environmentally sustainable and take into account the latest in 2020 office design trends to ensure that your employees want and love to work in. Our medical centre fitout solutions are ergonomic, attractive, comfortable and practical. Our medical fitouts are meticulously designed to ensure a safe and healthy environment for all of our client’s patients and is of great importance to us. We carefully consider healthcare needs and incorporate custom joinery, doors and entrances into medical receptions and treatment rooms that are easy to clean and promote a sense of wellbeing.
Choose Future Fitouts for your next office or medical fitout today and see how we can incorporate the latest office wellness design ideas into your workplace. Get in touch with our friendly team today to discuss all your modern office fitouts needs.