Office News

Looking after your back

Sitting at your desk all day can lead to back problems, especially if you have bad posture. There are some things you can do to help relieve the aches and pains associated with prolonged sitting.

Good Posture

When sitting at your desk, what is your posture like? Do you slouch over while you work? Sitting straight is very important, as is having back support. Your shoulder blades, lower and mid back should all make contact with the upright support of your office chair.

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Dating in the workplace can be a dangerous sport, if all goes well and you end up marrying the person then good for you. It can be much easier to get to know someone at work, you spend so much time together already, you have plenty of common ground and shared interests.

If you end up with a nasty breakup and you still have to see the person sitting across from you everyday then it’s another matter altogether.

One survey says 40% of workers succumb to office romances. You need to be aware of the pitfalls before making the decision, especially if your company has a policy forbidding dating.

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Whether inspired by famous movies or celebrity quotations, city nicknames and slogans are a fantastic and informative way to introduce your city to a complete stranger. We all know that what happens in Las Vegas, stays in Las Vegas, but what about other locations across the States?

Offices.net has compiled a list of city nicknames and slogans to try shed some light over the historic, social, cultural and – sometimes criminal – situation of each and every state, as well as most of the cities.

There are the flavoursome (Hershey, aka Chocolate Capital of the World; Kansas City, aka BBQ Capital of the World), the beautiful (Los Angeles, aka City of Flowers and Sunshine), the scary (Kansas City, aka Killa City; Roswell, aka Alien Capital of the World; Salem, aka The Witch City), the foreign (Ouray, aka Switzerland of America), the odd (Strong, aka Toothpick Capital of the World) the down-to-earth (Plano, aka Play No Games) and the humorous (Telluride, aka To-hell-you-ride).

The list of official and un-official state nicknames and taglines shows how over time certain things started to be associated with particular states, became inseparable and widely used, and in many cases treated as the -state surname-.

If you happen to know of a state motto or a city moniker that we haven’t included in the resource, please get in touch. Your contribution will be greatly appreciated. Read More »

Just like there are millions of ways to change a light bulb, apparently there are many ways to misspell the names of cities and states.

We have looked at the most common misspellings and decided to compile a helpful resource, containing over 1000 versions of cities we all love to spell correctly, but oh-so-often fail to do so!

Amazingly, there are ten ways to misspell Fayetteville, involving extensive swapping of the letters, doubling them where necessary, or trimming them down. Even the shortest of the shortest city names are featured in the list, i.e. Lodi in CA is commonly misspelled as Laudy, Lody, Lordy and Lowdy. Inventive!

If you are aware of any more common misspellings for US states or cities please feel free to submit them using this form.

Christmas brings with it much fun and frivolity, celebration and festivities. While the office Xmas party is a time to let your hair down and have a few drinks with your colleagues, you must remember that you still have to work there in the morning, so you don’t want to behave in a way that could embarrass you later. Dancing on the tables may seem like a great idea at the time, but you could end up shamefaced the next day, especially in this whole new world of social networking sites. Within hours your antics could be uploaded to Facebook and spread far and wide. Read More »

A report from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Service Administration has revealed which occupations have higher levels of smokers. Of all the full time employees in the United States aged between 18 and 64, 28% had smoked cigarettes in the previous month. Food-service workers came in highest with 45% having smoked during that same period. The second highest groups are construction workers and miners, coming in at 42.9%.

The study also showed that people who work in training, education and library fields smoke the least, with only 12.3% having lit up in the previous month.

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Sitting at a desk for nine hours a day is detrimental to your figure and it can be very easy to gain excess weight by eating unhealthily or snacking unnecessarily at work. All your willpower will be out the window once someone brings out the chocolates, cookies and potato chips. The hardest part of the day to resist these temptations is around 2pm, when your blood sugar levels have dipped. There are ways to combat the ‘office spread’ and here are some ideas and tips to help you on your way.

1. Eating breakfast before you go to work.

Although you may think that by skipping a meal you will lose weight, this is counter productive. Eating healthily first thing sets your metabolism for the day, and helps you to steer clear unhealthy snacks mid morning when your body craves sustenance.

2. Stay away from the doughnuts, muffin baskets and candy dishes.

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There many ways that we can save energy in the workplace, saving both the environment and the office budget. Businesses can help by purchasing energy efficient equipment, cutting down on waste and unnecessary energy usage.

Energy Star is a joint program of the U.S. Department of Energy and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and promotes energy efficient products and practices, offering advice and guidelines to help reduce energy wastage.

• When leaving the office be sure to turn off your computers, monitors, photocopiers and printers.

• Using a laptop computer uses ninety percent less energy than a desktop computer, the same is true for using an ink jet printer rather than a laser printer.

• Don’t use screen savers. Read More »

What you carry with you to work says as much about you as what you wear. You want to make the right first impression on the people you meet, colleagues, clients or employees. If you are a manager of a department your worn out backpack may make you look more like an ageing student. A good quality leather briefcase will keep all your important documents safe and tidy, or a smart handbag or manbag. In this hi-tech era you may also need to take a laptop with you to work or meetings and presentations, so a professional bag with suitable shoulder support is a must. Read More »

Swine Flu or the Novel Influenza A H1N1 virus is sweeping the USA, with more cases being reported daily. The World Health Organisation (WHO) raised the pandemic alert level to Phase 6 on the 11th of June 2009. The CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)’has issued advice and guidelines along with taking steps to respond to the outbreak.

We all need to be aware of the symptoms so that we can recognize if someone has the virus and what to do next. The symptoms of Swine Flu are very similar to seasonal flu and include:

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