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Wael Malki, Director of Wellness, Shangri-La Hotels and ResortsThe advancement in usage of communication technology in various arenas have impacted employees positively and negatively, leaving the boundaries between personal and professional life blurred. The article outlines the impact of this advancement on our well-being status and the wellness way of life for the employee and employer.
The internet era, the network 4G and now coming 5G and the applications, i.e. smartphone, laptop, tablet, and iPad have made it possible to work anywhere anytime. The usage of cloud-based technology, big data and IoT development leads to a faster and more reliable ways to keep everyone connected.
Protect Your Personal Space!!
The boundaries of the actual office hours have been challenged and it has been proved they are no longer coping with new rules of the game. With the usage of applications during office hours and beyond office hours, they are forcing the employee’s professional life to intervene with family time, vacation time, or even while they sleep.
"The separation between professional life and personal life impacts employee well-being positively, improves job satisfaction and enhances their emotional intelligence (EQ) status"
To know how to protect ourselves, we need to understand the root cause. Therefore, this topic was the focus of my Group final year projects during my MBA journey. Among the people surveyed, 77 percent were from Asia and the rest from Nordic countries and other parts of the world.
An Exciting Key Finding to Share:
There is a strong correlation between working long hours and using the smartphones, where the main reasons were reading and responding to work and personal emails.
Working longer hours and compromising the personal space has been leading to health issues and social difficulties. In recent years, a few tragedies have occurred in Hong Kong and London due to work overload.
With wellness mentioned often, people think of going to the gym and working out or following a strict diet. Whether an employee or employer, all human beings need quality time to relax and release the toxic built due to the amount of information processed daily. In recent years, organizations acknowledge the need for improvement when it comes to employee wellness and protecting their personal space. For instance, the German automaker Volkswagen stops its email servers from sending emails to its employees out of shift hours.
The hospitality industry is working on specific wellness programs for their employees by reducing employee connectivity out of working hours. However, they are taking further steps on the guests’ side, starting to offer wellness treatments, wellness packages and wellness destinations. The wellness market segment in the hospitality industry has seen tremendous growth in recent years.
Enjoy the Wellness Way of Life
The wellness way of life starts by making the right choices and allowing technology to serve human well-being. A few simple actions that we can take to drive wellness way of life are:
Assign a technology-free time daily and to make it count. This means no smartphone, laptop or any other devices; in other words, eliminate your connectivity. Enjoy reading a book, having a conversation with your partner or friend. Look out of your window to the skyline allowing your eye muscles to rest. Start with half an hour daily then gradually increase the time to an hour and a half, that could potentially save you 1500 HKD, the cost of wellness treatment every day.
• Drink water
• Monitor your screen activities and make use of the latest update of iOS 11
• Walk daily and make use of the data-driven by your wearables or by the smartphone data captured for tracking your improvement
• Sleep between seven to eight hours daily, allowing your body and soul to heal
• Enjoy a hiking trail once a month with friends and family
• Eat healthy means to eat smaller portions and have fruits and vegetables daily
The article highlights the over usage of technology as the main reason that impacts the well-being and the wellness way of life. Moreover, the separation between professional life and personal life impacts employee well-being positively, improves job satisfaction and enhances their emotional intelligence (EQ) status.
The Bright Side of the Story
Harvesting the data produced from each interaction with technology devices or big data enable decision making. Applying artificial intelligence and machine learning shape the experience of a customer’s journey and product production. Multi-national corporations (MNCs) and small and medium-size enterprises (SMEs) are allowed to enhance performance and produce accurate key performance indicators to measure the business health. Also, save the environment by using paperless procedure, daily around the world and help to fight the climate change impact on humans and terrestrial creatures.
Conclusion
Life expectancy reaches 80 years on average, with Asia on top of the list. Your wellness and well-being are an essential factor to live those years happier and healthier. Focus on your body and mind activities and protect your personal space. Avoid stressful environments and stressful situations by making the right choices. Never be late to start creating a strategic plan for yourself; what I love to do, where I want to be in 3 years, 5 years and 10 years.
Last but not least, enjoy active life daily. You could sign up to one of the hundreds of gym studios, big box gyms or class group activities.
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