7 seriously unhealthy Malaysian office habits, rated by experts

Malaysians lead very unhealthy lifestyles… particularly, a sedentary lifestyle. Not only do we constantly buy kuih-muihs at nearby stalls, we hardly exercise to burn it off. 🙁 We’d rather sit at our desks, facing the computer from the moment we masuk office, until the time we tag out. Bernama reports a study that three out of four Malaysians do more mental work than physical work!

But it’s difficult to be healthy, especially when you’re cooped up in the office all day. Our sponsor AIA knows the struggle, which is why they’ve introduced a cool new product that is ANYTHING but the typical, boring-azz insurance policy.

 

They’re helping Malaysians make healthier choices 🙂

AIA wants to motivate us to progress physically so we can live healthier, better and longer lives… but how? Introducing the AIA Vitality, an insurance-slash-health programme that actually REWARDS you for making healthy choices. And like these are legit lifestyle rewards you’ll actually want, not some potong stim nonsense.

For example, let’s say you usually take the lift to go up to your office. If you take the stairs, you can earn what they call ‘AIA Vitality Points’. You can also earn them by doing other stuff such as quit smoking and going for a jog. Then, you can then claim all sorts of rewards: discount on air fares, luxury hotels and branded goods, free magazines, and of course additional insurance protection too. (More rewards here.)

So all you gotta do is to make healthier choices in your daily life. And since we spend most of our time in our offices, why not start there? We asked Malaysians to tell us about some of the unhealthy habits they’ve noticed in their workplace, and we got experts to tell them how to FIX it!

 

1. Controlling your pee cos too much work!

Su calls her boss the ‘Boss of Steel Bladder’ cos she believes her boss memang got a bladder of steel. He seems to be able to tahan his pee for hours because the workload is so crazy it’s impossible to move away from the desk. It happens countless times a day. Wahhh, training bladder for Olympics or what? 😐

“Nah, the boss did this himself I think he should say sorry to his bladder for the poor treatment. Wonder if it’s too late to say sorrrrryyyy, lol kidding.” – Su

EXPERT SAYS: Dr. Hayati Hashim, a Medical Officer with the Oncology Department at Hospital Kuala Lumpur warns us that holding pee can cause solid masses made of crystals (ie. stones), as well as recurrent urinary tract infection. (Trust us, THOSE HURT LIKE LIVING MOTHERTRUCKERS.)

Keep it in any longer, and it could be even more embarrassing in your future. “It’ll also cause urge incontinence [involuntary leakage of urine] sometimes,” says Dr. Hayati.

 

2. Talking through apps instead of, well, talking

Sayri‘s office figured out a way to achieve zen-level silence by using mobile apps to communicate, instead of actually talking to each other.

“We are too lazy to walk, even though our rooms are just side by side or nearby.” – Sayri

Actually this habit was inspired by the boss because he has gout and can’t walk too much. Gout is a kind of arthritis which can cause an attack of sudden burning pain, stiffness and swelling in a joint (usually a big toe). “Our boss joins in the larger team group. He’s fine with that since we can share a lot of info together. And obesity, we’re sharing it too,” jokes Sayri.

EXPERT SAYS: Amy Tan, a Pilates teacher and Movement Educator explains that our bodies have a network of connective tissue called ‘fascia’ that wraps bones, muscles, organs and ligaments etc. It delivers nutrients to our body too, so when we are inactive, we are not allowing our bodies to function optimally. Not walking at all means our bodies are also stagnant INSIDE.

“Our bodies are designed for walking and constant movement because this way our circulatory systems can function. Like a car engine, using our body is ‘oiling’ or ‘lubricating’ the joints.” – Amy

 

3. Chain smoking in closed environments

Boring day in the office? That’s what YouTube animal videos are for, if it’s not blocked by your company la. But Cynthia Chek and her colleagues would rather procrastinate by smoking. It’s their usual Friday routine to pass the time while waiting to go home. Worse still, they would do it in a closed environment.

“All smokers clocks in at the staircase five times a day – before the beginning of the day, mid-morning, after lunch, mid-afternoon and 5pm before going home.” – Cynthia

The smoke breaks take place approximately every two hours each day. Their boss jokingly said it was one of the criteria for hiring. Nope, it’s not a cigarette company, if you’re wondering.

EXPERT SAYS: Tsk tsk! Dr. Hayati told us smoking in a closed environment is not only EXTRA bad for health than smoking in the open air, it’s naughty too, coz it’ll affect other people who use the staircase.

“I find it very annoying when I step into a closed environment (air-conditioned restaurant, or lift, etc.) with my baby and whole area smells of cigarette smoke. I feel like choking in the stuffy environment, just imagine how it would affect my baby… If only I could spank their forehead repeatedly!” – Dr. Hayati

Hur hur! Smoking is mostly BANNED in closed environments for because of the effects of secondhand smoke and thirdhand smoke. Btw, that refers to residual contamination from tobacco smoke that LINGERS in rooms long after smoking stops (club workers will know).

 

4. Not drinking enough water cos too far away

The water filter in Nurul‘s office is prolly not as far away as the Earth is to the Sun, but for her, it’s too far of a walk, so she would rather tahan her thirst. 

“Boss said we need to drink plenty of water every day but I just said we’re too busy with work we don’t have time to drink, haha.” – Nurul

At least once a week, there would be a day where she only drinks ONCE, throughout the whole day! We wonder if she often gets sore throats or not like that.

EXPERT SAYS: OK confession time. Dr. Hayati admits she often forgets to drink also, while her job requires a lot of talking and explaining. Naturally it’s not good because you can get dehydrated. Dehydration can cause people to have swollen tongues, dizziness, heart palpitations, faint, and low urine output. 

“One simple solution is to carry a water bottle with me everywhere I go. A 500ml bottle is enough, and once you finish you can always refill it.” – Dr. Hayati

 

5. Not washing water bottle cos also too far away

Cheah Hsu Jen can’t remember the last time she washed her water bottle. In fact, she said it could have been like weeks ago! She faces the same problem as Nurul… the pantry is just too far away (20 steps at least).

“Recently, I saw that some green-ish mould started forming inside, but I continued drinking since it’s green (like chlorophyll if I squint) and maybe healthy?” – Hsu Jen

HOMIGAWSHWHYYYY? Why Hsu Jen? Why? 😳 …. Or maybe it has plenty of vitamins and Hsu Jen is now super healthy and strong like Popeye.

EXPERT SAYS: Errr, NOPE! It’s definitely not like chlorophyll and not healthy, according to Dr. Hayati. She told us that the green stuff could be pseudomonas. Pseudomonas are a type of bacteria, eeeew! On a serious note though, pseudomonas infection can cause diarrhoea, vomiting, stomachache etc.

“This is disgusting! I think only pengotor person will do this. Just buy new bottle la! Or use recycled mineral bottle if you’re too stingy or lazy butt.” – Dr. Hayati

 

6. Starving when you have no ‘teman’

Having no teman to makan lunch with you sucks footballs. But surely you wouldn’t wanna skip lunch altogether right? Nex VH said he notices this unhealthy and weird habit from the people in his office.

“I can never understand is why some people (usually girls) would rather starve if they can’t find someone to accompany them for lunch.” – Nex

Don’t like that, at least tapau lor.

EXPERT SAYS: Skipping a meal can be doubly negative according to Juliana, firstly, because it makes you feel like tambah-sizing your portion for the next meal… and then you’ll get indigestion, heartburn and stomach discomfort from overeating. Unnecessary snacking almost always follows after a skipped meal. All those unnecessary calories and in long run, weight gain. 

On the other hand, skipping meals may also lead to nutrient deficiency as you lose out on the nutrients a wholesome meal can offer:

“Most of the time, we reach for unhealthy snacks to snack on (let’s be real). Not only you’re adding inches to your hips, but numbers to your blood sugars and cholesterol too.” – Juliana

 

7. Dragging chair from desk -> fridge -> toilet -> ??

Sometimes office chairs can be so plush and comfy we don’t wanna get our butts off them, except when it’s go home time. 😛 But the seats in Celine Woon‘s office have to be a really special kind. What else would cause them to glue their butts to them the whole day?

“Then we’ll drag ourselves along in the office chair (the one with wheels) to every part of the office. Sometimes to the fridge, to next door tables and worst to toilets! We look like those babies who have to use the baby walkers to move around!” – Celine

Celine’s boss thinks he should design chairs to fit the mold of his team’s butt shapes perfectly so that their lazy bums will be stuck in the chairs forever. Ironically, he took up the same habit and now moves around the office on his chair ‘taxi’.

EXPERT SAYS:

“I met a woman who had a slipped disc from just sitting on the desk for too many hours, too many days!” – Amy

HOW does this even happen?! Well, Amy explained that if we’re sitting on our bum whole day (often in bad, slouchy posture), we’re loading gravity into our slouchy spine. The back muscles that are supposed to support our spinal column are sleeping. So if they’re sleeping for long hours they learn to be lazy and don’t work so well, therefore it increases the chances of a slipped disc.

 

Congrats to all our winrars! ^__^

Ugaiz have won one of the following, courtesy of our generous friends in AIA: an iPod Nano, iPod Shuffle and Mi Band! Check your emails to know which one you won, and if you have the time, say #tenkiuAIA on their FB wall!

Now, realistically… we know it’s not easy to immediately change our lifestyles just because a few experts raised their concerns. How does a chain smoker give up his/her cigarettes overnight? Or a busy bee make the time to home-cook all his/her healthy meals? Heck, even deciding to take the stairs instead of the elevator is DIFFICULT!

The key here is to make achievable changes, ugaiz… so with AIA’s new insurance-slash-health programme, the AIA Vitality, maybe we’ll be incentivised to make these small – and hopefully eventually permanent – little tweaks to our lives. Cos who doesn’t want rewards, yo? 😉