By Dr. Margaret Gaglione, Inside Business - Hampton Roads, June 25, 2007
Most employers do not tolerate sleepy or inefficient workers because of alcohol or drugs, yet they permit food choices in their offices that just as surely reduce the chances of having an abundance of top-performing workers.
Promotion of wellness and health is a value that many companies advocate as a key tenet, yet for many companies the true promotion of wellness lacks teeth and substance beyond having a fitness center.
I suspect that this is because of the lack of knowledge of how important nutrition education and lifestyle changes are to becoming fit and losing weight.
It is more cost- and time-effective to construct a wellness program that incorporates emphasis on both fitness and nutrition.
Helping employees truly achieve good health is becoming the new competitive edge in business.
If your business prides itself on having a wellness program, ask yourself if that image is consistent throughout your entire organization, including office spaces.
What options do your employees have for eating? What’s in your soda and vending machines? Have you followed the lead of many school districts and pulled sugar-filled drinks from the menu and replaced them with water and a low-calorie option?
What is served at staff meetings? Do your employees feast on bagels and cream-filled donuts or have the option of fresh fruit, low-fat yogurt or scrambled eggs?
Employees overloaded on simple carbohydrates after consuming bagels and donuts will be far sleepier and less likely to think clearly when compared to employees who have eaten fresh fruit and eggs.
Do not fall prey to the argument that offering disease-causing foods is freedom of choice and good for employee morale.
This logic does not ring true if we view wellness from the standpoint of being important to job performance and projecting the company’s image.
Take a look at your business environment. Does it project the wellness values that you wish it to be known for?
How does your office look to a prospective client?
Do your employees embrace the company’s image and strive to fulfill it?
A study last year in the Journal of American Board of Family Medicine found that 42 percent of 234 hospitals surveyed were hosting brand- name fast-food restaurants at their hospitals, including such prestigious institutions as Cleveland Clinics.
A patient leaving after a cardiac bypass could pick up a Big Mac on the way home.
Clearly, the promotion of wellness is not a consistent theme in these 98 hospitals that serve fries with their prescriptions for lipid-lowering agents.
Another example is companies that employ truck drivers. Although they are not in the office, their health affects the bottom line.
How fit are your truck drivers?
In one study published in 2004 in the Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, 28 percent (114 out of 406) of the truck drivers studied had moderate sleep apnea and nearly 5 percent (19 out of 406) had severe sleep apnea.
Other studies have revealed that sleep apnea in obese patients can be in the excess of 60 percent.
I’ve done many employment physicals and have never been asked by the company to assess the risk of liability that the worker brings to the job given the individual’s current health status.
Clearly, the risk of an obese trucker with untreated sleep apnea falling asleep while behind the wheel of an 18-wheeler could be a tremendous issue of accountability for a company.
Environment is created.
Promoting a healthy environment for your employees will only strengthen the corporate image and provide an additional competitive edge.
Dr. Margaret Gaglione is the medical director of Tidewater Bariatrics in Chesapeake. She is a board-certified internal medicine physician and bariatric specialist who frequently speaks to businesses and medical practices on obesity’s impact on business and society. She can be reached at 644-6819 or www.tidewaterbariatrics.com.
