What is Wellness at work?
When I share the idea of wellness at work with people, I get varied reactions. Some of which are as weird as the idea of wellness at work itself. They say:
“Office mein kaam karein ki exercise” – The office is for work, not for exercise.- “Office hai ki Yoga Centre” – That’s an office not a yoga centre.
- “Boss kahega ki kaam karte nahi bas exercise karte rahte hai” – What will the boss think? We come to office for work, not a work-out.
- “Wellness at work – lol – it is really possible, time kaha hai” – Where is the time?
- “Insurance toh karwaya hai employee ka, baaki they can handle themselves” – The company has provided insurance for the employee, the rest they can take care themselves.
- “Wellness is individual choice, you can’t force them in office for it”
Listening to all this sometimes is very demoralizing. It always surprises me to think, ‘how on earth are people so insensitive about their own wellness.’ Most of us never get serious about it unless it’s advised by the doctor, which usually happens so late that everything is so out of our hand by then to make it back to normal.
Another thing which surprise me is the ignorance of people towards the term wellness itself. When we say wellness, we only co-relate it with either exercise or dieting, but the matter of fact is that it is way beyond that.
You will all be surprised that directly or indirectly, we make so many efforts in planning, educating and learning few aspect of wellness very seriously and they are occupational, financial and social wellness. We always plan and work out our way for our career growth, plan our investments for our secure future and similarly plan our social life as well. So then why can’t we have the same approach when it comes to our own self?
Coming back to wellness at work, it doesn’t necessarily mean that you have to do yoga sessions, gym trainings or having a dietician on board with salads in cafeteria menu. What it actually means is change in organization culture and individual’s approach towards wellness, which first need a proper planning before making necessary amendments in lifestyle, monitoring and finally achieving it.
Read other articles from Shubhi at her blog here.
