I believe that in order for employees to excel and be successful in their job or career their workplace needs to be mentally healthy. It is tough to be motivated when your work environment is mentally toxic. Especially during these tough economic times, a healthy workplace is essential and benefits both the company and its employees. However, many organizations during a recession are too busy thinking about cost reductions, staff layoffs, and salary and benefit cuts to worry about implementing a physiologically healthy workplace program. A mentally healthy work environment can increase productivity, performance and work quality. There was an interesting article in the Calgary Herald about...

  How are you doing on your New Years Resolutions? Most of us begin each New Year with wonderful intentions to get fit, eat better, lose weight or, in general, attain a better level of wellness in our lives.   However, usually by this point, most of us have already faltered. We need to learn to take baby steps towards our goals and not to give up if we encounter a set back.   Wellness is multi-faceted: Physical, Mental and Emotional concerns all affect us each day. Since all of our body's systems are connected, our family and social life, work environment and spirituality all play an important...

Wellness is that quality that gives us the sense that everything is under control, which in turn allows us to focus fully on what we are doing without distraction from stress, disease, or conflict. We all know instituting a workplace wellness program improves the health of employees, decreases employee absenteeism and thus saves the company money. But how do you implement such a thing and how much money is the company going to have to spend to get it off the ground? Most wellness resources tell you that the success of a workplace wellness initiative is based on 3 to 5 basic elements and the strategy resulting from...

You’ve heard about it, seen it and potentially dealt with it. An employee with significant health issues trying to carry on working while struggling with a serious illness. You’ve also no doubt seen the impact on your organization.   Some managers/supervisors are able to be empathetic while still being responsible to their organizations – these managers are generally the ones that have had more experience and or may have been through a serious illness themselves. I have found time and time again proper handling of these situations is something you cannot learn from a text book. You have to learn by experiencing it.   It’s a fine line...

What is pandemic influenza? Influenza is an infection of the lungs and airways caused by an influenza virus.  Pandemic influenza occurs when a new influenza virus, with an ability to spread easily from human to human, circulates worldwide.   Pandemic influenza presents a new biological hazard into the workplace, and Health Canada (2006) anticipates a 20 to 25 percent work absenteeism rate during pandemic influenza.  It has been more than 35 years since the last pandemic and the historical average has been every 25 years.   The symptoms of H1N1 influenza virus in Canada have been generally mild and are similar to the symptoms of seasonal influenza. Symptoms...