Most Employees Miss Out on Lunch and Exercise: Study

Employers in the U.K must encourage physical activity and decent lunch breaks for working staff, suggests a new survey report.

Experts at the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy and Aviva health insurance surveyed workforce in the country to note trends in health and life style habits influenced by job pressures. They found a considerable number of working staff do not take a break, stretch their working hours and eat their lunch at their desks. About 21 percent of the working people miss out their lunch breaks. These habits pose a threat to organizational productivity by damaging the health and wellbeing of its labor force.

Nearly 48 percent of the surveyed employees said they managed to squeeze in sometime for lunch and mostly ate at their desks. Around 19 percent reported being so occupied with work that they hardly had time to go out for lunch. The reports also revealed exercise regimes and physical activity levels were affected owing to work pressure and professional demands. Almost 32 percent of the working staff worked for durations longer than their contracted working hours.  Only three percent of the employees reported going to the gym regularly while, 42 percent of the respondents said they dropped plans of getting their daily dose of physical activity.

"Full-time workers spend a significant bulk of their week at work, or travelling to and from it. Finding ways to build in time to do at least 30 minutes of moderate intensity physical activity, five times a week, can be a challenge," said Karen Middleton, chief executive of the CSP in a news release.

Poor eating habits and sedentary lifestyles increase the risk of musculoskeletal problems like back pain, neck ache and other serious health conditions like heart diseases, stroke and cancer. Alarmed by these findings, health officials urge employers to invest in and promote physical activities among employees to avoid unnecessary financial burden and loss of human resources.

The 2010 and 2011 statistical data from the Health and Safety Executive, suggests sickness leaves in the U.K cost more than 10 billion pounds and only 30 percent of the workers had access to facilities like gym, after work fitness club and lunchtime running club.

"Aside from the human cost, the price of inactivity for employers can be vast, with higher sickness absence costs and lower productivity. Physios play a key role in getting people back to work and keeping them fit for work. It is in everybody's interests to find ways to tackle the enormous problem of inactivity in the UK and we would encourage people to take responsibility for their own health," said Middleton.

The experts believe local councils and public health officials must take over the responsibility of educating public about the health hazards of remaining inactive. They add employees too must take initiatives to look for ways to get physical and outdoor workouts. Simple habits like walking to work or parking the car away from work can be beneficial to physical health.

The new survey poll was released on Friday for the CPS's annual Workout at Work Day.