Health and wellness programme in the workplace

This week, the Fiji Sun family kickstarted its health and wellness programme for the next two months. It’s an effort to promote health and well-being in the workplace.

The programme includes:

Mondays and Tuesdays – Fun activities at the park for an hour;

Wednesdays – Fruits day;

Thursdays – No sugar day; and

Fridays – Healthy walk around the park for an hour

On Monday, a handful of those based in Suva were in their training gear beginning what would be the start of the best decision one can make for his or herself.

Yesterday, we had a few more joining in the session and what a day it was, especially for those who had slipped during the COVID-19 pandemic and packed on a few grams, if not kilograms.

Our management has encouraged our other bureaus in the North and West to design a programme for their teams too.

While it is obviously still early to determine any results, regardless, it is a start.

So, what is health and wellness? For information sake, a medical report online tells us that health refers to a state where the physical body is free from disease, while wellness refers to an overall balance of a person’s physical, social, spiritual, emotional, intellectual, environmental and occupational wellbeing.

Exercising is just part of the health and wellness programme. The others deal with social, spiritual, emotional, intellectual, environmental and occupational well-being

When you’re in the right shape everything else will follow.

Your mental health and intellectuality – you are able to think straight.

Your physical wellbeing– you are able to work at your optimum best.

And of course, don’t we all love the idea of ‘when you look good, you feel good’ feeling?

In the workplace, this of course ticks all the boxes to boosting productivity.

We know and have reported that some ministries and Government agencies as well as the private sector also have a health and wellness programme for their workers. Keep it up.

We urge more to join and continue this fight for your life. Many of our loved ones and colleagues, each year, are robbed of their lives because they or we didn’t see the signs, or otherwise were ignored.

For the powers that be in the workplace, we urge, if you have not started, to begin a health and wellness programme for your staff members.

Make that investment or urge your work colleagues to start taking care of themselves or else they will pay the ultimate price sooner or later.

ranoba.baoa@fijisun.com.fj