Sedentary Lifestyle: Effects and Solutions. Working from home in times of Covid-19 as a Case Study

Sedentary Lifestyle: Effects and Solutions 

Working from home in times of Covid-19 as a Case Study 

The word ‘sedentary' has certainly taken center stage in our environment. Due to Covid-19, so many industries for instance telecommunications, IT, education, the oil sector, and many more, came up with the idea of working from home due to the need for social distancing to curb the spread of the virus. Today, although so many have gone back to the office, a whole lot of folks are still working from home, and this may continue till who knows when. At first, on the one hand, it seemed to be a terrific idea, and people were eager to get away from the sight of their boss or superiors, but on the other hand, some were skeptical about how the whole experience would turn out. Clearly, this could be the way the world would operate for some months, but there are consequences to such a lifestyle, which we are going to look at with more emphasis on working from home. 

What is a Sedentary Lifestyle 

This is a lifestyle that demands little or no physical activities, and this could simply involve sitting at one spot and engaged in the viewing of the television, using of mobile device, reading, or even making use of a computer. In this case, the attention is on working on a computer while sitting constantly in a particular position. This is certainly the device age, and we all can relate to this, right? 

Case Study 1 

Mr. A works as an auditor for a popular auditing firm in the city. He walks into the office one day during the beginning of Covid-19 and learns that they would be working from home for their own safety. Happily, he goes back home. Immediately he gets home, he decides to start off first thing the following morning since it was month-end and he had little to nothing to close on. 

The following day, as early as 8am, he jumps right in front of his system after having a heavy breakfast. As soon as it gets to twelve, he eats lunch and continues to work. He doesn’t get tired until five, the normal closing hour when his pace suddenly starts to slow down. He pushes himself a little beyond the limit because no boss was hanging over his neck, and at some minutes past 6, he shuts his laptop, relaxes over dinner. 

Afterward, while he was done with dinner, his phone rings, and it was his boss, in fact, his line manager. He needed him to close a few accounts, and it was an emergency because those were big players in the industry: his employers had a reputation to uphold, and they could not afford to mess things up because they don’t want to stand the chance of losing such juicy clients to their competitors.

Mr. A curses under his breath looks at the clock and the time was fast gone eight at night. The manager hurries off to other official duties and he gets up and drags himself back to the laptop, sitting on a chair, probably without a backrest, slouching, and a table that wasn’t aligned with his height. He starts to work and at twelve, he sends the last email, and crawls right under his blanket, leaving a plate of after-dinner close to his laptop. 

Unfortunately, this continues, and Mr. A doesn’t only close work at midnight, resumes at six the following day, but he also works weekends despite the orientation given by HR about the dangers of extra working hours without a break before they all dispersed from the office. 

Actually, I have created this self-explanatory case study to give us a bigger picture of what is presently going on most firms and what could likely happen shortly. Many working from home can honestly relate to this. As a result of the high demand for goods and services, many companies subject their employees to working back to back to stay ahead of the competition. In Mr. A’s case, multiply the number of days worked by the amount of food consumed with no exercise, and you will be having a lot to think about. Now, since this is actually the situation of most employees who work from home, we would agree that there are bound to be consequences. Let’s move a step further to find out. 

Negative Effects of Sedentary Lifestyle 

On Our Body 

This lifestyle is deadly and must be discouraged by all means due to its negative effect on the body in the following ways: 

· The number of calories you burn each day would reduce, and this could lead to weight gain. 

· Your muscle would gradually grow weak and lose their tightness because they haven’t been put to good use. 

· This affects a person’s bone because a kind of tenderness suddenly resurfaces. 

· The human body at this stage would find it very difficult to break down food like it used to due to slow metabolism. 

· One of the ways our immune system stays active is when we too are active apart from eating immune-boosting foods, At this level, your immune system weakens. 

· Also, there would be an issue with blood circulation since it drives on activities. 

On Our Health

Obviously, a sedentary lifestyle has become a new norm in our society, but this comes with its consequences in the area of health such as: 

· Obesity 

· Type 2 Diabetics And Heart Diseases 

· Depression 

· Eye Defects 

· High Blood Pressure 

· Severe pain which could lead to death 

· Heart Attack 

· High Cholesterol 

Solutions to a Sedentary Lifestyle 

Case Study 2 

One morning, Mr. A wakes up with a piercing pain in his chest. Unfortunately, it was his wife who drives him straight to the hospital where the doctor rolled out his diagnosis like the length of a toilet paper. Impressively, the doctor took it a step further by calling the HR of the cooperation after close examination and questioning and threatened to report to the appropriate authorities if immediate action wasn’t taken because her employees were at risk. A day after, a quarter of their employees end up admitted to the hospital, and production reduced drastically leading to great loss for e company. On seeing this, the HR department had to salvage the remainder of the members of staff to training on Work-Life Balance in the times of Covid 19. There, some of the facts were clearly mandated were:

· Strict adherence to work hour regulation. 

· Constant exercise 

· Provision of enhanced office furniture 

· Consumption of a balanced diet. 

· Constant fluid intake. 

· Leave/vacation/break in-between working hours. 

Presently, the Sedentary lifestyle seems more pronounced due to the pandemic due to the great need to control its spread with workers carrying out their duties right from home. Although the introduction of work-at-home could help to reduce its effect to the barest minimum, it has, in turn, turned into an employee’s worse nightmare due to the negative effects it poses on their health and body. By all means, there is a need to monitor the effects of stationary lifestyle on workers, and as well create pathways to solving these issues that are glaring because, in the end, a lot may end up not going back to the office when all this is over but to hospital beds or live a long life of doctor’s prescription, which some are already doing. 

We hope you enjoyed this read! Please leave a comment or share an experience. 

Photo Credit: Stock Photos 

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