If you’re spending most of your time somewhere, and it’s damaging to your health, you could run into some serious problems. After years of sitting in that office for eight hours a day, all of those small health niggles can add up to something a lot more dangerous. While you might not realize it, your workplace is one of the most dangerous places that you spend time, for a lot of different reasons. Some might be better than others, especially newer ones, but they all have their problems. Here are the ways that your workplace is damaging your health.

Air Conditioning

Image from Maxpixel

When it’s boiling outside, you’ll want the air conditioning on to keep you cool. Nobody can concentrate on working when they’re sweating buckets, but a lot of offices tend to overcompensate. Sometimes, when you step through the office doors, you’re hit with a wave of freezing cold air that makes you shiver. It’s basically like sitting outside in winter, which isn’t going to be good for your health. This usually happens because the air conditioning temperature is based on the average office worker which tends to be a middle aged man. If you are smaller than the average person, you’re going to be chilly. When you’re exposed to cold temperatures for extended periods of time, you are far more susceptible to catching a cold. If you’re freezing cold all day at work, bring an extra sweater or consider getting a small heater for your desk.

Fears About Job Security

Employers these days are not as loyal to their workers as they once were, and freelance workers are being used more often. This flexibility does work for some people, but people tend to be more worried about their job security. This constant stress can have a big negative impact on your health. Stress causes mental health issues if you allow it to build up without dealing with it, and it has also been linked to heart disease. In order to alleviate some of those fears and make yourself more relaxed, make sure that you’ve always got a healthy savings account so if you do end up losing your job, you won’t be stuck in a bad situation.

Horrible Bosses

Image From Flickr

Another common cause of contention in the workplace is a difficult boss. We’ve all had them at some point so I don’t need to tell you that it can make your work life twice as stressful. Research found that people working under a demanding boss are around 35 percent more likely to develop a physical ailment as result of stress. If you are being overworked, you might end up damaging your health to keep up with it. So, even though you might think it’s just part of life, a horrible boss could really be hurting your health.

Old Building Materials

Older buildings tend to be full of materials that are bad for your health because we didn’t realize at the time that they were so bad for us. Asbestos is a common material that pops up in lots of older buildings and can cause serious health problems. If your office has asbestos in and your health has been affected, your employer could be liable to pay you some compensation. The experienced mesothelioma lawyers of Madeksho Law can tell you if you have a case and help you with the legal proceedings. If you are constantly exposed to asbestos, you could develop forms of cancer.

Lead paint is another common material that could have a significant impact on your health. A lot of the time it’s harmless, but if it starts to peel and flake off, you risk breathing it in and getting lead poisoning.

Open Offices

Image From Flickr

Open plan offices seem to be all the rage at the moment. There are all sorts of new age companies building open plan offices instead of the classic cubicle set up because they think it’s more conducive to creative and productive work. The truth is, they aren’t as amazing as we think. There are far more distractions in an open plan office which increase adrenaline levels and raises your blood pressure. When you’ve got high blood pressure all of the time, your risk of heart disease increases drastically. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t work in an open office at all, but it might be worth putting some headphones in and getting a bit of solitary work done.

These workplace problems are fairly common so the likelihood is, most of us are affected by at least one of them from time to time. Unfortunately, you can’t avoid going into the office, but if you’re aware of them you can try to reduce the effects.

Picture Credit

Many of us dream of working from home. Imagine being free from office hours and constraints. You’ll be able to kiss goodbye to uniforms and work in whatever outfit you fancy. And, you’ll be able to do something you love from the comfort of your favorite place. It’s an enviable situation. And, for those of us with children and other such commitments, work like this can be a lifesaver.

But, working this way isn’t all plain sailing. The main setback that many freelancers admit to is the loneliness of a job like this. When working alone, you may find that you go hours without speaking to a soul. It’s peaceful, of course, but when you do it every day, it can start to get you down. If you let it, it can leave you feeling a disconnect with the outside world. That is never a positive thing. Such disconnect can cause dissatisfaction. And, dissatisfaction is a terrible condition once it takes hold. It may even make you doubt the wonderful life you’re living.

The good news is, there are ways to stop the issue. When starting out, consider work from home options with an added dose of satisfaction. That way, when dissatisfaction creeps in, you can rest easy that you’re contributing. Knowing that you’re helping others, even if you’re doing so from home, is the best way to keep yourself connected to what matters. Here are a few options which are sure to make a difference.

Start A Charity

A fantastic way to make a difference while working from home is to start a charity. Admittedly, this isn’t going to sustain you in the early stages. The primary purpose of a charity is, of course, to raise money for a good cause. But, if all goes well, you may find that you can afford to pay yourself a wage later down the line.

In many ways, starting a charity is no different from starting any other business. Once you’ve developed your idea, you will need to register as a charity. But, once you’ve done that, you’ll be on familiar footing. You’ll need to develop a website, and build awareness of your brand. Fundraising events and charity days are invaluable. They’ll also offer you a chance to get out and about on occasion. Even when working from home, it can be helpful to go out to the field now and again. It’s the ideal way to counter that loneliness.

An Online Counseling Service

If you have a desire to help, you could opt for an online counseling service. More and more people are coming round to the idea that counseling can be helpful in day to day life. The only trouble is, we’re all busy. As such, a counseling service you can take with you is the perfect thing.

Bear in mind, if you are going down this route, that you’ll need credentials. Not just anybody can set up and give advice. If you try it, you could do more harm than good. You have a responsibility to your clients to give informed and professional advice. You could do an online Master of Arts in Psychology during the planning stages. Or, if you don’t want to take things that far, a counseling course is an excellent alternative. Once you’re qualified, you can get to work. The interaction this option offers will ensure you forget that you’re alone.

Offer Tutoring Services

Tutoring has long been a go-to for freelance workers. Teaching is incredibly rewarding, and working one on one with a student can be even more so. In the past, you would have had to meet students face to face, but technology means that’s no longer necessary. As such, this is the ideal work from home option.

Using programs such as Skype means you can interact, and even have face to face conversations. This suits young people, who prefer to do things online. And, it’ll allow you to maintain the work from home lifestyle you desire.

Picture Credit

Tutors don’t need qualifications to operate, but you have a care of responsibility here, too. It would be unfair to your students to undertake a subject you don’t know much about. Only go down this route if you’re extremely knowledgeable about an individual subject. If, for example, you studied English or maths at university. If all your students fail, you’ll find it hard to make a go of this. Besides which, you’ll be letting them down in a major way. That’s no way to find satisfaction.

Image via: Pexels

If you’ve been enjoying muscle-building exercises for a while now, you hardly need someone to tell you that it’s good for your body. It feels stronger, leaner, and energized – but the benefits are far greater than the immediate boost of confidence and a tighter body.

When you’re pushing your body to get stronger, you’re also preventing a variety of physical and mental diseases, as well as making you a smarter and more balanced person in general.

The difference between strength building and bulking up

While strength training is recommended for both genders and during most stages of life, some people shy away from it. They don’t want to bulk up or become much bigger – which is particularly relevant for young women who think they’ll end up with massive muscles. This is, of course, not the case and we should learn to encourage our daughters to become stronger.

Women are in anyway more prone to the loss of bone density with age, and strength-building exercises are ideal to keep our bones healthy and strong for as long as possible.

Strength and Alzheimer’s

Did you know that certain exercises are excellent for your brain power? Ping-pong was, for example, proclaimed as the best brain boosting sport of all times; it might not be weight-lifting, but it’s worth mention nonetheless. A study has found that when sedentary adults over the age of 65 started to work out, their brains still benefited from it and increased in size as well as function.

Another study focused on women between the ages of seventy and eighty who were diagnosed with MCI; after six months, they found that the women who participated in strength exercises outperformed all the other cardio groups when it came to improved brain functions. Keep lifting, in other words, and pump that brain up as well.

Strength and Osteoporosis

As mentioned, women are especially affected by this disease – and the best prevention is an active youth filled with calcium-dense food. Sometimes, it’s too late for prevention, though but people who are already diagnosed can greatly benefit from muscle-building exercises as well.

Anything that can keep your bones strong and healthy is excellent news; with resistance training, you’ll be able to strengthen them as well as with regular weight-lifting. Combine your regular medications with this kind of exercise and bulk up on leafy greens, canned sardines, and low-fat dairy as well.

After talking to your doctor about it, you can also consider a calcium supplement which may increase your bone density. Read about the AlgaeCal side effects and ask your doctor if this is a good choice for you.

Besides from increasing our lifespan and letting us enjoy a strong and healthy body while we’re here, building strength is great for your mental health. It keeps you active, striving, and makes sure you take full advantage of this wonderful shelter you’ve been given – so that it can keep you safe for a long time to come.

(Image: http://bit.ly/1YuQl1d)

We need to take our health seriously if we want to live a long and fruitful life. One of the main things we’re told to do is exercise and work out. In turn, this throws up a much-debated question; should you lift weights? Most women wonder this, as they’re not sure how healthy it is to gain muscle.

Well, today’s piece will show you the truth about building muscle, and prove that it is healthy for women to do so.

(Picture: http://bit.ly/2nX8DMX)

The Truth About Building Muscle

Many women believe that building muscle means you end up looking like Arnold Schwarzenegger. This really isn’t the case at all, particularly for women. You see, women have lower testosterone levels than men, which makes it impossible to look as big and bulky as them. Instead, you look a lot leaner and stronger.

How Do You Build Muscle?

Building muscle is as simple as can be. In truth, all you need to do is train with resistance. By doing so, you put more tension on your muscles, causing them to break down and grow back stronger. As it mentions in this Body Beast review from defendyourhealthcare.us, many exercise programs and people claim to have a muscle building secret. Don’t be fooled, there is no secret! All you have to do is train your muscles regularly, with resistance, and watch them grow.

How Does It Benefit Your Body?

This is where things get interesting as building muscle has lots of benefits for your overall health and physical condition. In this article from livestrong.com, it mentions how muscle mass can help speed up your metabolism. The more muscle mass you have, the faster it will be, which makes burning calories a lot easier. As a knock on effect, you will find weight loss much easier to achieve as well. Plus, gaining muscle will make you stronger, which make everyday tasks, like carrying your grocery shopping, a lot easier. It also improves your physical appearance by making everything look more toned and tighter. This gives you a confidence boost, which can really help your self-esteem and mental health.

(Photo: http://bit.ly/2qKs6FK)

Is It Healthy To Lift Weights?

So, is it healthy for women to lift weights? The answer to this is a resounding yes! There are lots of health benefits to lifting weights, and you shouldn’t miss out on them. The key is learning to lift in moderation. You shouldn’t lift weights every single day, you need to have at least a couple of days per week where you rest, so your body can recover. Likewise, avoid training the same muscles in consecutive days. For example, let’s say you do a workout for your legs on Monday, switch to a different body part on Tuesday. Furthermore, make sure you know how to lift weights before you start. Injuries occur when you lift without proper form, so bear that in mind.

In conclusion, you can see the truth about building muscle and that it is healthy to lift weights. Don’t be fooled into thinking you’ll end up looking like a bodybuilder by picking up a few weights. This type of training is very important if you want to live a healthy lifestyle.

(image)

Whether you are an established pro blogger or just beginning to dip your toe into the water, the fact remains that promotion for your blog is an essential. You could be producing the best, richest, most varied content on the entire internet – but if you don’t have readers, very little else matters.

As a result of this obvious need, the internet is stuffed to the brim with tips that are meant to help draw the eye of readers. A lot of these tips have some merit to them, but here’s the problem: every other blog under the sun is doing them as well. If you want to truly stand out in what is becoming an ever-more dense marketplace, then you’re going to need to do something different.

So, steering away from ideas like “use social media” or “comment on other people’s posts” – what’s the next stage of blog promotion that can truly elicit excellent results?

1) Run A Giveaway

There’s no doubt that running a giveaway is a lot of work. The idea is pretty simple; you contact a brand, who give you a product to run a giveaway on. This benefits your blog as, to enter into the giveaway, you can request that people follow your blog and social media. While some of those potential new readers will drift away when the competition closes, some will stick around – and you’ll have developed a brand partnership at the same time.

The biggest problem you’ll have is managing the entries. You’re going to need a PO box if some of the submissions are to be done by post; you’re also going to need to be able to send the winning entrant their item, so check your mailing costs. As for selecting a winner, the tried and tested method is using a Rafflecopter, so make sure you’ve got that sorted before you launch your giveaway onto the world.

2) Offer Yourself As An Expert

One way to bring new readers and a sense of authority to your blog is to offer yourself as an expert on the topics you can best represent. The best way of doing this is to peruse the #journorequest hashtag on Twitter. This is where writers and journalists publish the kinds of people they are hoping to speak with. If a request fits into an area you know a lot about, you can volunteer your experience in exchange for a blog credit.

Not only does this spread the name and URL of your blog to a wider audience, but it also allows you to add “as featured in…” to your blog sidebar. This can help give new visitors a sense that your blog is professional in a way the majority of standard hobby blogs just can’t manage.

3) Brand Your Life

So much of the search for traffic is related to the internet. Of course, this makes sense; your blog is an internet-based entity, so of course the majority of your promotional work is going to go in this area.

However, it’s not just online you can catch new readers – there’s plenty of offline chances, too. Add your blog to your business card; even paste your URL onto the back of your car, in the hopes that one day someone behind you in traffic will be curious enough to visit. While these might seem like small fry, finding a loyal readership is all about spreading your net far and wide – so don’t be afraid to experiment!

Blog promotion isn’t an easy thing, but do it right, and you could find yourself reaping the benefits in terms of traffic for years to come.

Sponsored post.

I come from a large family. Dad, four younger siblings, one sister-in-law, and a nephew. Oh, plus one more niece or nephew coming along. I also come from a family who loves to travel together. Road trip is what we prefer more than anything else.

That’s the foremost reason why we are now in search of the right family car. We want a big one, preferably an SUV. It would be easy to pick a van but Dad would also want to be able to buy a car which he can use when he’s traveling alone. But, of course, we couldn’t pick just any SUV out there. We need to know if it will suit our needs and our budget.

2016 Chevrolet Suburban

To avoid making mistakes, we decided that we need to list down what we need/want in a family car and find the right one before we make a final choice. Cars.com comes in to the rescue! The site has every information needed on new and used cars, trucks for sale and auto reviews. What I like about the site the most is every car make or body style can be found there together with specs and reviews as well as service centers and dealers. Exactly what we need to know before making a final choice on what SUV to buy.

We are down to a 2017 Ford Everest and a 2016 Chevrolet Suburban. Now, we only need to list down the specs and read the extensive reviews, do the comparisons. And decide!

Image Source

If you own any sort of small business it is likely that you will be using a wired or wireless router to connect all of your employees to the web. These devices have been in use for some time and connect your business network to a wide area network (WAN) which then provides the Internet service. There are so many types of routers available that it can be overwhelming.

It is important that you select a router that meets your needs and it is wise to get some help with this from Netstar. You will get fully managed proactive and reactive IT support. You will not be left struggling to find your own technology solutions to improve your business processes. The fully managed IT service will help you to achieve your business goals. There is nothing more frustrating than struggling with a poor WiFi connection so here are some of the things that you need to think about.

Your need for speed

This starts with your Internet service provider (ISP). The more users you have and the bigger the sets of data that you need to upload and download, the faster you need your service to be. If your business uses video or audio streaming you need more speed but if you are simply sending emails and browsing the web your requirements will be less.

There are cost implications. A service with a higher speed will cost more per month. Also, routers that can handle higher bandwidth cost more. Have a frank discussion with your ISP about what speed of service you need. Then you need to invest in a router that will handle at least that speed.

There is no point in paying a high monthly fee to your ISP for a fast service if your routers cannot handle it. How many users can your router support and what sort of data can it handle?

Choose your WAN port

Your ISP should also tell you what type of WAN port you will need. This is the way in which you make the connection to their system. How critical is online access for your business? If it would be an utter disaster if you lost your internet connection even for an hour or so, you should ask for a second ISP for backup service. When you do this, you will need a router with two or more WAN ports.

LAN ports on your router

The number of LAN Ethernet ports and their speed are other things that you need to consider. These ports are vital because they are network’s connection to the Internet. It is the gateway to your business. You will probably find that most routers have up to four LAN ports. However, you do have more options. You could connect an LAN port to a network switch to expand the number of connections that you have available for PCs or printers.

Speed is also an issue here. Whilst the most common LAN ports on routers run at 10/100 megabits per second (Mbps), it is possible to get 1000 Mbps Ethernet network speeds. Think about what your business will need in the future. You may not need these faster speeds now, but if you are likely to need them in the next year or so it makes sense to invest in them early on.

Setting Up a VPN in your business

Are you likely to need to access your network from outside your main business premises? If you think that this is a possibility, you may need a virtual private network capability in your router. It is vital that you ensure that the router you choose will support the protocol you want to use for your VPN. There are several options for you to choose from including IPsec, PPTP and L2TP.

Security of your router

Cyber security is the big issue in IT right now and is likely to be for the next decade. You have a duty to protect your systems from cyber-attacks. Sadly, you will be the target of an attack at some stage so you must take steps to protect yourself.

The router is your network’s first line of defence against such attacks. You must make sure that a hardware firewall is built into the model that you choose. If you can afford it, you should invest in a model with full unified threat management (UTM). This is vital if your business has compliance requirements relating to cyber security.

USB ports

USB ports are needed to connect your router with other devices. The more sophisticated routers may have print spoolers so that you can better manage print jobs. USB ports are also used to connect to hard disks and flash drives and are used to share files. However, some business-grade routers will not have USB ports. If you need this facility you will need to get a NAS device for network storage.

Managed or unmanaged?

This is up to you. Most small business networks don’t use managed routers but that does not mean that your particular small business does not need one. If the quality of service needs to be managed in a way that prioritizes certain types of traffic then you will probably be better off having a managed router. Unmanaged routers are already preconfigured to handle common traffic and will handle most things that you throw at it.

Wired routers vs wireless routers

There is no doubt that wireless routers are much more popular than wired-only routers. However, there are certainly some business circumstances where a wired version would be preferable.

If your business location has a total area of less than about 2,000 square feet, then you will probably find that a single wireless router will successfully deliver Wi-Fi to all of your employees. You will need to take interference conditions (walls and obstacles) and the number of users into consideration.

On the other hand, if your business premises has multiple floors, router placement complications or is extremely large, a wireless may not be able to cope and a wired option would be preferable.