Five Ways to Support Workplace Mental Health
On World Mental Health day, Alex Minett from CHAS offers five steps companies can take to make workplaces more inclusive for workers who experience mental health...
Read Full ArticleActor Brian Cox has joined the campaign to raise awareness that continuous desk work negatively affects stress levels.
A global report exploring the impact of daily and continuous desk work has revealed that our mental state starts to decline after just two hours.
The study of 26,000 participants revealed a strong connection between sedentary behaviour and mental wellbeing, with wellbeing scores declining the longer individuals remain inactive.
After just two hours of continuous desk work, mental well-being scores begin to drop, and stress levels rise. After four hours of uninterrupted desk time, workers’ stress levels increased significantly by 18 per cent.
However, by introducing 15 minutes of movement into their working day, participants’ mental state improved by 22.5 per cent with their overall State of Mind score increasing from 62/100 to 76/100. Taking a daily desk break for just one week lowered stress levels by 14.7 per cent, boosted productivity by 33.2 per cent and improved focus by 28.6 per cent.
Sportswear brand ASICS commissioned the research and has been brought to life in an advert starring Succession actor Brian Cox, who plays the role of the world’s scariest boss to highlight the silent threat to our mental health—the desk we work at every day. It calls on office workers to put their mental health first by taking a desk break, a short movement break, during the working day.
On World Mental Health Day, ASICS is urging office workers to join the #DeskBreak movement by sharing an image of their empty desk on social media.
Dr Brendon Stubbs, a leading researcher in exercise and mental health from King’s College London, said: “We have shown previously that just 15 minutes of exercise in leisure time can result in a meaningful improvement in people’s State of Mind scores. But what surprised us with the Desk Break experiment was how powerful the 15-minute movement breaks were in improving wellbeing and reducing stress. It even changed people’s perceptions of their workplace for the better.”
Picture: a photograph of actor Brian Cox, pointing into the distance in a menacing pose. Image Credit: ASICS
Article written by Ella Tansley | Published 10 October 2024
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