A new study has shown that fit staff perform more efficiently at work and have better relationships with colleagues.
Guru heartily agrees, and immediately lobbied for a bevy of Baywatch beauties to inhabit his workplace. Sadly, it was then pointed out that ‘fit’ was meant in an aerobic way, not in a ‘let’s run slow-motion down the beach covered in little more than a napkin’ kind of way. Shame.
The research found that people who regularly exercise produce a greater amount of quality work, and find their jobs less taxing. Apparently, overweight staff take more time off sick and have worse relationships with their colleagues. It is all about resistance to fatigue, don’t you know.
Ergonomics consultancy, Human Engineering Ltd, is asking workers to limber up before work. Allegedly, the UK lost 12.3 million days last year through musculo-skeletal disorders after people didn’t warm up for the day ahead.
But let’s take a moment to look at the other side. Is there anything that would make for a worse start to the day than having to line up next to your sweaty colleagues first thing in the morning?
Italians nip and tuck their way into office
Why work out when you can get the look with no exertion whatsoever?
The Italians, with a long history of running (away), have come up with a novel approach to get staff looking good.
Sandro Donati, the mayor of Mulazzo in Tuscany, has offered more than £2,000 to cover beauty treatment and cosmetic surgery expenses for councillors, so that they can better represent the town’s image.
Donati decided to set up this fund for the aesthetically-challenged after a local politician asked for cash to buy some blue contact lenses.
He hopes the dosh – being written into expenses as ‘poor but beautiful’ – will make the council a ‘beautiful and more charming’ place to work.
Working mums to blame for fat teens
As we are on the fitness issue, let us turn our calorie-laden sights onto children. They’re getting bigger, and we’re not talking in a ‘haven’t you grown’ kind of way. An unbelievable 15 per cent of 15 year olds are now obese.
Now, we all know what happened to Piggy in Lord of the Flies, don’t we? (For the uncultured, he was squashed by a rock). We don’t want that to happen to our kids, do we? Nor do we want anything to be squashed by our scale-busting siblings.
Enter, the unlikely saviour of youth: celebrity chef Antony Worrall Thompson. He has blamed working mothers for the rise in child obesity. He claims that working mums are too tired to feed their children properly at the end of the day, and resort to fast food and other meals of dubious nutritional value.
“We forget that – and I hate to be sexist here – most women are working,” Thompson said. “In the old days, most women prepared meals.”
He then went on to say that people have forgotten how to cook, “despite the world of TV chefs”. Wow! How did anyone cope before there were TV chefs? Guru couldn’t imagine life without them.
Obviously, Thompson has forgotten the cornerstone of polite manners – when you’re eating (your own words), keep your mouth shut.
Baywatch’s ‘Hass’ looking for credit
It is important to give credit where credit’s due. A good manager should give recognition to an employee who has made a positive impact on any situation.
This maxim can and should be extended across all industries. Take the example of TV ‘legend’ David Hasselhoff, who has complained after finding his photo absent in a collection of memorabilia about the fall of the Berlin Wall.
The Baywatch star claims he had a hand in the fall of the Berlin Wall after singing his song, Looking for Freedom, to millions of German fans at the Brandenburg Gate.
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He is reported to have said: “I find it a bit sad that there is no photo of me hanging on the walls in the Berlin Museum at Checkpoint Charlie.”
Guru feels a certain kinship with ‘The Hass’ – both are at the top of their game, but neither are taken particularly seriously.
