Encouraging an Active Office
It's lunchtime and your coworkers (many of whom are most likely your friends, too), head over to a table to sit down, eat, and chat. Who wants to miss that? Certainly not you.
Peer pressure is a reality, especially when you want to hang with your buds. Here are some ways to recruit your coworkers to be more active:
Ask for support honestly. Tell them you have a goal (you might even want to say it's on doctor's orders) to be more active during the day, and you'd like them to help you. Ask if they'd be interested in taking walks with you or in joining the gym.
Split up the fun. Eat lunch with your friends on some days, and head to the gym on others. Don't think of the situation as win-lose; think of it as win-win — a compromise for you to do everything you enjoy.
If you sense resentment from your coworkers who haven't yet embraced the fit life, look for support elsewhere. Ask a friend or relative who does support your goals to call or e-mail you during the day to see how you are doing (just once; you don't have to waste a lot of time) so you don't feel alone.
It will only help your company, its employees, and your company's productivity if fitness — and therefore good health — is encouraged and supported. Call your health insurance provider and ask if they have any incentives for companies that promote health and wellness on their work-site. Then head to your human resources department and let them know about those incentives, since they might save the company money.
Health and fitness benefits are one of the measurements used to judge whether a company is good. Check out
Second, think about places in your company where something active, such as a Ping-Pong table, could be placed. Sound funny? Ping-Pong is physical and, believe it or not, it's one of the most common ways for a company to introduce some activity into their employees' lives.
Third, find the person in charge who likes to work out. Is it a VP who comes to the office straight from the gym every day? Does your CEO have a treadmill in his office? Go straight to that person (don't be afraid!) and explain that you want to help promote fitness in the workplace because it will reduce health insurance claims (and it will!) and make the office a more pleasant place to work.
