Workplace Habits That Can Harm Your Health

An average person spends about half of their waking hours at work. So, this is why developing great workplace habits is so important. These good habits include best practices such as good time and stress management. The modern workplace is usually stressful, so poor workplace habits can not only kill your career but also harm your health. Workplace stress depends not only on your type of work, but also your office culture, the management style, and the level of control that you have over your workload.

Although stress can be a great motivator, after a certain point it becomes draining. Being constantly under pressure to meet all your work requirements can be exhausting. If you are also overwhelmed by negative emotions like resentment and fear, this will drain your energy and may lead to adrenal fatigue. Let’s explore more details about workplace habits that can be fatal.

What Are Some of the Workplace Habits That Can Harm Your Health?

The workplace habits that you develop will depend on your work environment, and also your attitude to work. Here are five bad workplace habits that can harm your health:

1. Overworking yourself
   How you do your job is influenced by the office culture, which can be collaborative or competitive. Your work attitude also plays a part. If you are used to working late or taking work home, then you will soon face burnout or another stress-related disorder. In the increasingly competitive job market, many people work more than a regular 40-hour week. Overworked people are more likely to make mistakes, suffer job-related injuries and stress-based disorders.
2. Working through lunch
   You are wrong if you think that working through lunch will make you more productive. If you go without food, both your energy and concentration levels will significantly drop. We recommend that you step away from the computer once in a while to stretch your legs and rest your eyes. This will make it easier to continue working. Besides, a light, healthy meal will help keep your blood sugar level stable and help you stay focused on your job.
3. Multitasking
   We often fall into the multitasking trap, due to our belief that we can accomplish more by doing many things simultaneously. New research shows that when you multitask, you deplete your energy faster. This is because you have to switch your attention from task to task. You become easily distracted as your concentration is split across many tasks. As a result, your stress levels rise as you try to stay on top of all the things you're trying to do.
4. Unhealthy eating habits
   Work overload forces many people to skip lunch (or eat junk food that’s at hand). When you skip a meal, your blood sugar level rises. If you get home hungry, you will probably overeat when you get a chance to have a proper mal. Snacks or fast-food meals are empty calories that lack key nutrients. Also, most people tend to eat more when they're stressed. So, stress + bad workplace habits + unhealthy food choices + sedentary lifestyle = food-related disorders. These disorders include obesity, depression, indigestion, inflammation, certain types of cancer, heart disease, kidney failure, type 2 diabetes, and fatty liver.
5. Poor stress management
   There are many sources of stress in the workplace, such as work overload, unsupportive colleagues, and micromanagement. The trick to good stress management is to learn to deal with the office culture instead of trying to change it. Start by boosting your health by making time for daily exercise and adopting a balanced diet. Try to get enough sleep at night, reduce your caffeine intake, and break bad workplace habits that contribute to stress. Resist perfectionism, improve your time management, and learn to prioritize. You will survive in a high-pressure environment only if you learn to preserve your energy and have a healthy work-life balance.

Workplace Stress and Adrenal Fatigue

Inflammation is often associated with pain and discomfort, but it can be good for your health. This is because it is through an inflammatory process that your body's immune system is activated. So, inflammation is a sign that your body is trying to heal itself and repair the damaged cells.

But, if unaddressed, inflammation can become a chronic condition that can lead to some very serious health problems. These include cancer, heart disease, stroke, kidney failure, and adrenal fatigue.

Unmanaged chronic inflammation causes adrenals to produce cortisol non-stop. If this goes on for a long time, adrenals will one day simply exhaust themselves. Common contributors to an inflammatory response and adrenal fatigue are poor nutrition, stress, poor sleep, hormonal imbalances, gut disorders, and certain chronic conditions. So, poor workplace habits only exacerbate these problems.

Workplace Habits That Contribute to Adrenal Fatigue

Today, long-term stress is usually associated with the workplace. Three workplace habits that directly contribute to inflammation and adrenal fatigue are:

1. Being unable to handle the pressure;
2. Attempting to relieve stress through comfort eating, smoking, or alcohol;
3. Unhealthy food choices.

In the face of pervasive stress, you should take care of your adrenals to be able to cope. Your adrenal glands help you stay alive, by producing cortisol that helps prepare you for the fight-or-flight response. The temporary surge of energy enables you to be ready to attack, receive a blow, or flee. In other words, cortisol prepares you to react to stress in the way you see fit.

Although the rush of cortisol inhibits insulin production, if this happens only occasionally, it is not a problem. However, if due to stress or bad working habits, cortisol is pumped into your blood continuously. So, if you are always chronically stressed, your adrenals will get depleted. This, in turn, creates the ideal conditions for adrenal fatigue. When this happens, your adrenals may be unable to produce enough cortisol and other hormones. You may then begin to experience some, or all, of the adrenal fatigue symptoms. These include muscle weakness, constant fatigue, low blood pressure, loss of appetite, and excessive sweating.

The Importance of Diet for Good Health

Learning, or improving, your stress-management techniques is very important to maintain your health. But, your diet is equally important. What you eat is closely linked with your stress levels, as certain nutrients help relieve stress. On the other hand, stress affects your eating habits. This is because when you are stressed, you often don't have enough energy to prepare a healthy meal. Or you may try to relax with alcohol or comfort foods.

According to the NeuroEndoMetabolic (NEM) stress response model, the foods you eat can be your medicine or your poison. We know there is a link between inflammation and stress-related disorders, so avoiding inflammatory foods is best. These inflammatory foods include sugars, cooking oils, trans fats, dairy products, commercially produced meat, processed meats, alcohol, refined grains, and artificial food additives. Avoiding these foods will help to offset the development of adrenal fatigue symptoms.

To keep your adrenal glands healthy and strong, adopt a diet rich in anti-inflammatory foods. These include fruits, vegetables, legumes, fish, poultry, whole grains, and healthy fats. So, it is possible to recover from many debilitating conditions without medications and expensive treatments. How can a healthy lifestyle help you improve your workplace habits?

• A balanced diet keeps your energy levels stable and ensures mental alertness throughout the day. This boosts your memory and helps you stay focused on your tasks. You also feel full for longer, which prevents binge eating after work.
• Reducing your caffeine intake will help you sleep better at night. As you rest more, you’ll have more energy during the day.
• Exercising for at least 20 minutes a day will reduce your adrenaline and cortisol production. This will then decrease your stress levels. Besides, exercise releases endorphins, the hormones which boost your mood.

Conclusion

Many workplace habits can wreak havoc on your health. It is important to break these bad habits and adopt ones that support a better work-life balance. You should also note that it’s important to eat a balanced diet. This will ensure that you get all the necessary nutrients to not only improve your health. You will also give you the energy you need to successfully cope with your workplace.

 
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