Well at Work: Creating Wellbeing in any Workspace

LONGLISTED FOR THE 2023 OWL AWARDS

Full of science-backed tips on how to design any workspace for physical and emotional wellbeing, “Well at Work helps us thrive wherever we work.” (Arianna Huffington)

Whether you work in a traditional office or a corner of your bedroom, staying well at work need not be a luxury. But wellness at work isn’t just about staying physically healthy; it’s also about reducing stress and improving mood, focus, energy, and productivity.

Well at Work reveals how to optimize our workspaces for wellbeing across the seven domains of integrative health: stress and resilience, movement, sleep, relationships, environment, nutrition, and spirituality, and even the air we breathe. You’ll learn:

• How the environment you work in all day can affect your sleep at night
• Optimal lighting and noise levels for reducing stress and improving focus
• How to adjust temperature and humidity to stay alert and protect against infection
• Why open-plan offices can keep you more active
• The myriad benefits of access to nature (and how to bring nature indoors)
• Office layouts that foster social interactions but not distraction
• Foods to enhance cognitive performance
• And more

Along the way, you’ll meet the scientists and doctors, designers and architects, and building science professionals who are striving to make workplaces more conducive to wellbeing. And you’ll glimpse into the future of the workplace, where artificial intelligence and the metaverse will help us create environments that respond to our individual needs.

Above all, you’ll come away with a menu of simple, “innovative, and often overlooked” (Dr. Richard Carmona) steps anyone can take to be—and stay—well at work.

Esther M. Sternberg, M.D. is Professor of Medicine, Psychology, and Architecture, Landscape Architecture and Planning at the University of Arizona. Internationally recognized for her pioneering discoveries on the mind-body-stress interaction in illness and healing and on the impact of built environments on integrative health and wellness, Dr. Sternberg has advised the World Health Organization, the US Institute of Medicine, and the Vatican, and has briefed high level government officials including the Surgeon General, the Department of Defense, and the United States Congress. Previously a senior scientist at the National Institutes of Health, she is the author of The Balance Within and Healing Spaces.