Don't just sit there - stand

Exercise only slightly lessens the health risks of prolonged sitting, scientists with the National Cancer Institute have concluded, after eight years following almost 250,000 American adults.

When we’re stationary, blood sugar spikes and insulin levels get out of whack.

Interestingly, jogging doesn’t improve blood sugar regulation any more than standing and walking does. Scientists say what’s important is to break up long hours of sitting.

 

Experiments at the University of Massachusetts show that when volunteers stood all day — nothing else; no walking or jogging; just standing — they burned hundreds more calories than when they sat for the same period of time.

The magic retirement age

Conventional wisdom holds that most Americans entering their 50s and 60s will have to keep working well past their planned retirement dates to make up for shortfalls in savings.
 
But a new report from the MetLife Mature Market Institute, “Transitioning into Retirement,” suggests that might not be true. It found that among the oldest Baby Boomers, those who turned 65 in 2011, almost twice as many told researchers that they were fully retired as were working full time: 45% and 24%, respectively.
 
The average age at retirement for those surveyed was 59.7 for men and 57.2 for women. This is a small segment of Baby Boomers, of course, and the reasons for retiring vary.

Open offices and noise

I began my career in newsrooms, quickly learning how to focus on a phone interview or write my story surrounded by noise -- reporters on the phone, editors shouting and everyone pounding away on typewriters.  I longed for my own office and some quiet, which I eventually enjoyed when I moved to the corporate world.

Cubicles and open space became the norm in recent years, with lack of privacy and the requisite loud neighbor discussing family or medical issues common complaints.

Fortunately, I have a quiet workspace, but many employees do not. Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, after surveying 65,000 people in North America, Europe, Africa and Australia over the past decade, report that more than half of office workers are dissatisfied with the level of “speech privacy.”  

“In general, people do not like the acoustics in open offices,” said John Goins, the leader of the survey conducted by Berkeley’s Center for the Built Environment. “The noisemakers aren’t so bothered by the lack of privacy, but most people are not happy, and designers are finally starting to pay attention to the problem.”

“Many studies show that people have shorter and more superficial conversations in open offices because they’re self-conscious about being overheard,” said Anne-Laure Fayard, a professor of management at the Polytechnic Institute of New York University who has studied open offices. “Everyone is still experimenting with ways to balance the need for collaboration and the need for privacy.”

As to the noise, you can try tuning it out. You can try headphones. And if all else fails, you may need to talk to the person when your coping strategies have failed. Experts advise you be as neutral and nonjudgmental as possible, understanding that people may be completely unaware that they are being annoying. And remember they may see you the same way.

Now they tell us: Coffee makes you live longer

In his 1973 hit "Sleeper," Woody Allen's character wakes up 200 years in the future to find smoking is good for you. I think of that every time I read that something we've been told is good for us, or vice versa, This is the latest: Study: Coffee makes you live longer

Disturbing stats about saving

Half of Americans say they aren’t contributing to a retirement plan, according to a LIMRA Retirement Research survey, but the numbers are more lower for those 18-34.  

The research director calls that disturbing, emphasizing it’s critical to begin saving regularly early in your career to earn enough for retirement. 

A quarter of all Americans and less than a third of of those older than age 50 work with a financial professional to plan for retirement, but those who do are more likely to be contributing to their retirement.  

What good managers don't say

Three things you only hear from bad managers, courtesy of former Fortune 500 executive Liz Ryan.

• “I don’t pay you to think.”
• “Who gave you permission to do that?”
• “In these times, you’re lucky to have a job at all.”

You can see the complete list here.
The common point is an overbearing approach to management, a style which costs businesses money, the Market Research Executive Board says:

• Employee agility is the leading driver of employee performance. It matters 3 times more than expending additional effort or being responsive.

Sobering numbers: Projecting retirement medical costs

Fidelity estimates a 65-year-old couple retiring this year will need $240,000 to cover medical expenses throughout retirement, a 4% increase from last year. The estimate has increased an average of 6% annually in a decade.

The overweight worker: The price we pay

That too many Americans are overweight is not news, but the cost to businesses, governments and individuals is even greater than believed only a few years ago: Additional medical spending due to obesity is double previous estimates and exceeds even those of smoking, a new study by the National Opinion Research Center shows.
There are higher health insurance premiums, of course, because we all pay to cover those extra medical costs. What economists are discovering is that just as we learned about the costs associated with second-hand smoke, there is now a price tag on high body mass indexes.

• The percentage of overweight Americans (BMI of 25 to 29.9) has held relatively steady: It was 34% in 2008 and 32% in 1961.
• The percentage of Americans who are obese (with a BMI of 30 or higher) has tripled since 1960, to 34%.
• The incidence of extreme or "morbid" obesity (BMI above 40) has risen sixfold, to 6%.

In addition to a host of medical conditions, from heart disease to chronic pain, overweight people miss work more frequently, and can be less productive. Studies also show that overweight workers are less likely to be hired and promoted. 

Retirement savings: Men compared to women

Women have $41,000 less saved than men over the course of a lifetime, according to a new study from ING Retirement Research Institute shows. For women with children, that gap expands to $61,000.

According to the study, among those who have savings in or outside of an employer-sponsored retirement plan, men have substantially more saved than women, $149,000 on average, compared to women, who averaged $108,000 in total savings. For women with children at home, this retirement savings figure dropped even further, to $88,000. 

A key driver of total retirement savings is the percentage of salary that individuals contribute to their employer-sponsored retirement plan. Mothers face additional hurdles when it comes to building their retirement security — while the income gap between men and women has narrowed in recent years, mothers tend to spend more time out of the workforce due to caregiver responsibilities. This reality reduces their earning and savings potential and also lowers Social Security benefits.

See earlier post: Will you have enough?

The mail bag gets heavier

Corporate email storage is growing 20-25% a year, thanks in part of heavier file sharing, according to Osterman Research. The data dump sucks $997B in productivity out of the U.S. workers annually, says research firm Basex.

 

Much of the drag is due to bad habits: an estimated 30% of email is occupational spam, causes by overuse of :cc, :bcc and "replay all."

Lighter = happier?

From a Fitness Magazine survey:

• 38% of adults feel fat on weekly basis
• More than half want to lose 10-20 lbs
• 74% aren’t at their goal weight
• 41% said they’d be happier if they were at goal weight
• 18% thought they’d have better love life
• 7% said they’d make more money
• 4% said they’d have more friends

Interesting that so many think they'd be happier if they were lighter.