I’ve just started a new job running a garden in South West Scotland and the lads who work here are pretty unfit. Don’t get me wrong, they’re great guys and they aren’t at all workshy, but their eating habits and general standard of fitness is really bad.

Has anyone here ever had any way of encouraging people to get fitter at work that actually works? The owner is happy to do some sort of incentive scheme and I’ll dig around and get some “proper” advice, but I thought someone here might have had experience of things that have worked or haven’t.

Plenty of companies do a thing for cycling to work, Chris King I think give you an extra day’s holiday if you do it for a certain period of time.
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Is gardening not reasonably physical? (Says the man sat a desk all day, it’s certainly better than my job) If the work is better then guessing it’s out of work that needs changed and that’s much harder for you to influence. What are they eating at lunchtime? If it’s a local chippy you could provide a healthier free/subsidised alternative?
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Is it actually causing you or the business a problem? Too many sick days maybe?

Free fruit, healthy lunches etc. are ones I’ve seen in offices

Its actually a bit difficult as yu have to avoid whatever incentive you offer being seen as a taxable benefit. Edinburgh council tried years ago to encourage cycling by offering the same travel expenses as car drivers to its staff and IIRC also a small cash incentive to cycle to work – the taxman seized the scheme as a taxable benefit and thus would have taxed those in receipt of this at a higher rate. that killed the scheme

Over the last few years I have convinced 6 people at work to cycle commute, a few others are getting hooked on step counting, they now (regardless of the weather) do a lunchtime walk almost every day.
It’s all been about dropping suggestions and information into our daily conversations.
The hardest thing is getting them to a tipping point where the new routine becomes a habit and part of their day to day. Most of them are now also encouraging friends and family to make small changes.

Has anyone here ever had any way of encouraging people to get fitter at work that actually works?

Is thier fitness causing you workflow issues ? or is it more you have decided that they don’t look fit and therefore are going to insist they get fit?

Define Fit

I’m going to stick my neck out and say, leave them alone unless workflow suffers.

🤔

Their fitness is not your issue. If it causes problems with their work then your issue is the problems with their work, it’s still not their fitness.

get a baseball cap with ‘Making South West Scotland Not Fat Again’ written on it.

Release a tiger in the garden.

Fitness levels will improve dramatically as will situational awareness skills.

Maybe do it sneakliy maybe by introducing something like football after work or something, but it would have to be very subtle and not overtly competitive. Maybe start with a game like croquet or something then introduce more stuff that requires a bit more vigour.

Most of the obvious ‘Eat fruit! Cycle to work!’ stuff is very easily ignored by people who don’t GAS.

When I worked in central London i was the only cycle commuter in the office. It was pretty pointless trying to persuade those around me to join me, so i just got on with it. Anyway, after a couple of years we got up to about 5 regulars, company put in showers, lockers and there was already bike storage.

Catalyst was train strikes, season ticket costs, fitness. In fact converting fellow workers to cycle commute could well have been my biggest achievement. Just as the smokers stuck together, so did the cyclists.

My OH’s workplace pay £50 (grossed up for tax) towards gym membership if you go to the gym 6x a month.

Assuming its a fairly large garden, could you just lose the keys to the quad, agricat or whatever you use and get everyone into the habit of wheelbarrowing stuff. Or just say it’s for carbon emission reduction.

get a baseball cap with ‘Making South West Scotland Not Fat Again’ written on it.

🤣🤣👍

Cattle prod?

Or go to the pub with them and encourage them to have a gin and slimline instead of a pint?

Blokes generally respond really well to people trying to modify their lifestyles

*wanders off to start Full Fat Friday thread….*

I have a pretty good track record of motivating folk to improve their eating habits and fitness levels, all i can say is drip, drip, drip, a bit of carrot and a bit of stick.

I’m probably the fittest person in my office, but if somebody at my work started something like that I’d go out of my way to eat biscuits and cake in front of them. If it’s not affecting their work then it’s nobody else’s business. Might sound harsh, but it’s true. How are you defining their fitness by the way, compared to what and have you actually asked any of them if they want to get fit?

It’s the West of Scotland, most guys are fat, lazy and have a diet that would embarrass a yank.

Where ye based? NT property or sonething?.

Never ask what I eat on nights.

Must go the Gregg’s delivery needs hammered.

My son’s employer pays him to give a lunchtime juggling class every week for staff and students. It’s not going to make you fit but good for the flow experience and wellbeing.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mihaly_Csikszentmihalyi

This guy’s worth checking out if you haven’t come across him before. NB name pronounced ‘chick sent me hi-yee’ (could be a flow experience?)

I started up a running group at work, twice a week, straight after work. Got a dozen folk, that was about April, within a few months they didn’t need me, meant I could go back to my lunchtime running.

They still go at least once a week, and work let them finish 30 mins early to go.

Win win.

I’m probably the fittest person in my office, but if somebody at my work started something like that I’d go out of my way to eat biscuits and cake in front of them.

Well, there’s often those who want to spoil things for the sake of it, but thanks for the input.

As for starting “something like that”, you have no idea what “that” is. He’s asked for suggestions, and said his employer is supportive & might make changes.

Helpful replies include examples of extra money given for gym membership, free healthy food, or early stack to go do phys. All sound like things that might help nudge folk & reward them.

Paid time to have a kick around once a week seems like a great idea, good for team spirit too. Not sure suggesting everything gets barrowed round will go so well!

But sure, go eat cake in his face, if you want.

The thing that seems to have most effective in our place is a 6 monthly health check. Weight, blood pressure, body fat, cholesterol, blood sugar etc. Really opened some eyes, quite a few that needed it changes their diets and took up some form of exercise. Regularity seems key to track changes.

We had a decent sports centre down the road when I worked in Wilmslow. A few of us started playing badminton at lunchtimes. It was a great way to break up the day. We’d come back in having had a right laugh, and the powers that be turned a blind eye to us taking longer than we should have done for lunch.

So when we got back in, when people asked what we were doing we just asked if they fancied joining us. Within a couple of months there were 14 of us playing regularly. We’d all keep our kit in the office, then a couple of times a week we’d block book all the courts and then just all head down there, and play doubles games, swapping around so you’d play with someone different all the time. It got really competitive, but it was a brilliant thing to do at lunchtimnes.

We also did used to go to the pub quite a bit at lunchtimes too though

A balance needs to be maintained 😀

Well, there’s often those who want to spoil things for the sake of it, but thanks for the input.

As for starting “something like that”, you have no idea what “that” is. He’s asked for suggestions, and said his employer is supportive & might make changes.

I found a sense of humour down the back of my settee earlier. Is it yours? Lighten up 😉

but their eating habits and general standard of fitness is really bad.

Welcome to most of the world.
I too work for an active, outdoory organisation yet still have colleagues who are morbidly obese, refuse to even get up from chair at lunch, and find it weird I go for a run or walk every lunch I am in the office…they find it even odder that I walk/cycle/run/canoe for fun at the weekend.
Don’t get me wrong, i love my food, and I am no whippet in build (think more Obelix that Getafix), but I *need* to keep weight and health in check due to high blood pressure and haemochromatosis kicking in. Again, they find that I would go to this ‘effort’ (apparently it is no fun) to be healthier and happier…
So then they go home, hoover up three pizza’s, drink a bottle a night and come back to work next day they feel like a sack of sh*t and moan about how cold it is outdoors…

Our office up here has a posted of stretches on the back of the door, has an alarm every hour so we all get up and wander around the office, and welcomes all of us in sports kit on office days so that we can all walk or run at lunch…and 3/4 are veggie, and all of us climb hills/walk dog/cycle/run out of work…

We are seen as ‘odd’, with genuine resistance from some colleagues about trying some of this out in our other office…

I just don’t get it. Embarrassment and guilt I think is in there, intimidated by us ‘super fit’ people as they see it, slovenly attitudes…any more to add?

Good luck with changing the culture.