Sitting at your desk all day can lead to back problems, especially if you have bad posture. There are some things you can do to help relieve the aches and pains associated with prolonged sitting.

Good Posture

When sitting at your desk, what is your posture like? Do you slouch over while you work? Sitting straight is very important, as is having back support. Your shoulder blades, lower and mid back should all make contact with the upright support of your office chair.

Chair Position

Your office chair should have a back rest, and the height should be adjusted so that your desk surface is elbow high. Your keyboard should be close to you to prevent you hunching over and your computer monitor should be at your eye level.

Exercise

Gentle exercise is good for your back, getting up from your desk and stretching can help alleviate the pain and stiffness. Going for a walk at lunch or break times will also help.

Posture Aids

Look into getting an ergonomic chair that is suited to you, as you spend eight hours or more at your desk it will be worth the investment. You could also try using a lumbar roll to support your lower back.

If you end up with a nasty breakup and you still have to see the person sitting across from you everyday then it’s another matter altogether.

One survey says 40% of workers succumb to office romances. You need to be aware of the pitfalls before making the decision, especially if your company has a policy forbidding dating.

At work, you must both remain professional at all times. No sneaking off and canoodling in the copier room or having a domestic argument in front of other members of staff.

If the relationship goes wrong you will have to handle it privately and not let it affect your job. Crying in the wash room, flinging accusations and spreading personal information can be damaging to your career.

I have a male friend who dated his manager and when he broke up with her, all hell broke loose. Having to walk pass her desk everyday and getting snarky comments and pointed looks became too much for him and he ended up looking for a position in another company. Suffice it to say he will not be dating within the office pool again.

Offices.net has compiled a list of city nicknames and slogans to try shed some light over the historic, social, cultural and – sometimes criminal – situation of each and every state, as well as most of the cities.

There are the flavoursome (Hershey, aka Chocolate Capital of the World; Kansas City, aka BBQ Capital of the World), the beautiful (Los Angeles, aka City of Flowers and Sunshine), the scary (Kansas City, aka Killa City; Roswell, aka Alien Capital of the World; Salem, aka The Witch City), the foreign (Ouray, aka Switzerland of America), the odd (Strong, aka Toothpick Capital of the World) the down-to-earth (Plano, aka Play No Games) and the humorous (Telluride, aka To-hell-you-ride).

The list of official and un-official state nicknames and taglines shows how over time certain things started to be associated with particular states, became inseparable and widely used, and in many cases treated as the ‘state surname’.

If you happen to know of a state motto or a city moniker that we haven’t included in the resource, please get in touch. Your contribution will be greatly appreciated.

Glossary:

Motto: designed to enhance the city’s cultural, historical, economical or social importance.
Moniker: synonymous with a city, usually used alongside the actual city name.
Nickname: a familiar, invented name used instead of the actual city name.
Slogan: a brief sentence or a phrase used to identify the city.
Tagline: a variant of a branding slogan typically used in marketing materials.

We have looked at the most common misspellings and decided to compile a helpful resource, containing over 1000 versions of cities we all love to spell correctly, but oh-so-often fail to do so!

Amazingly, there are ten ways to misspell Fayetteville, involving extensive swapping of the letters, doubling them where necessary, or trimming them down. Even the shortest of the shortest city names are featured in the list, i.e. Lodi in CA is commonly misspelled as Laudy, Lody, Lordy and Lowdy. Inventive!

If you are aware of any more common misspellings for US states or cities please feel free to submit them using this form.

Christmas brings with it much fun and frivolity, celebration and festivities. While the office Xmas party is a time to let your hair down and have a few drinks with your colleagues, you must remember that you still have to work there in the morning, so you don’t want to behave in a way that could embarrass you later. Dancing on the tables may seem like a great idea at the time, but you could end up shamefaced the next day, especially in this whole new world of social networking sites. Within hours your antics could be uploaded to Facebook and spread far and wide. Be sure to take time to talk to everyone, be cheerful and steer clear of office gossip, next time it could be you that is the subject of discussion. Enjoy yourself, but don’t drink to excess, and be sure to eat something during the course of the evening as well. Dress nicely, but not too provocatively, you still need to keep some of your professional image. Last word of advice: Stay away from the photocopier!

The study also showed that people who work in training, education and library fields smoke the least, with only 12.3% having lit up in the previous month.

There is also a higher rate of younger workers smoking in relation to older workers. 40.1% of full time employees in the 18 – 24 age bracket have are reported to have smoked in the previous month compared to 33.9% of workers ages 26-34; 26.7% of workers ages 35-49; and 20.7% of workers ages 50-64.

1. Eating breakfast before you go to work.

Although you may think that by skipping a meal you will lose weight, this is counter productive. Eating healthily first thing sets your metabolism for the day, and helps you to steer clear unhealthy snacks mid morning when your body craves sustenance.

2. Stay away from the doughnuts, muffin baskets and candy dishes.

Some workplaces have snacks and treats on hand, which although this sounds nice, doesn’t help in the battle of the bulge. You could ask for a fresh fruit basket to be delivered instead of the usual cookies.

3. Walk up the stairs instead of using the lift.

This will help burn calories and tone your body.

4. Drink plenty of water throughout your day.

Not only is drinking 8 glasses of water good for you, you may find that you replace some of your coffee, which can really add the calories once loaded with cream and sugar.  Keep a refillable bottle on your desk.

5. Bring a packed lunch.

You will know exactly what is in your sandwich or salad, so no hidden calories. You will also save yourself $$ by doing this. If you just don’t have the time to make a lunch at home, find out where the closest healthy eatery is located. Pizza and hotdogs are a recipe for diet disaster.

6. Healthy snacks.

Keep a small supply of healthy snack foods in your desk drawer for ‘emergencies’. Dried fruit, nuts etc.

7. Go for a walk at lunchtime or coffee breaks.

You will feel much better for it, even a short walk is better than sitting at your desk.

8. Keep away from the vending machine.

They usually only stock candy bars and other unhealthy items laden with empty calories.

Energy Star is a joint program of the U.S. Department of Energy and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and promotes energy efficient products and practices, offering advice and guidelines to help reduce energy wastage.

• When leaving the office be sure to turn off your computers, monitors, photocopiers and printers.

• Using a laptop computer uses ninety percent less energy than a desktop computer, the same is true for using an ink jet printer rather than a laser printer.

• Don’t use screen savers.

• Use products that have earned the Energy Star rating including monitors, computers, fax machines etc where possible.

• Turn out the lights when leaving the office.

• Be sure to switch off the lights in conference rooms when not in use.

• Use dimmer switches and energy efficient light bulbs.

• Use natural light where possible.

• Only print memos when necessary, emails are often sufficient. If you must print use both sides of the paper.

For women, when choosing the right work handbag you need to ensure that you can fit what you need into it, but don’t buy a large bag or overfill it. Carrying a heavy bag can cause back problems, joint pain, strains and even headaches. To prevent this make sure you have correct posture and evenly distribute the items in your bag, you should also move your bag from shoulder to shoulder to give each side a break. Investing in a good quality work bag or briefcase will pay dividends in the end, you will portray the right image along with protecting your shoulders and back as much as possible.

We all need to be aware of the symptoms so that we can recognize if someone has the virus and what to do next. The symptoms of Swine Flu are very similar to seasonal flu and include:

• Cough
• Sore Throat
• Fever
• Runny or stuffy nose
• Body aches
• Chills
• Fatigue
• Headache
• Vomiting and diarrhoea

If you do have these symptoms you should avoid contact with other people and not go into work for seven days after these symptoms begin, unless you need medical care. If you are at high risk for complications or severe illness, such as over the age of 65 or have a chronic medical condition such as diabetes, asthma, heart disease or are immunosuppressed be sure to contact your doctor immediately. Everyone should also be using the same precautions as you would with seasonal flu, washing hands regularly, covering your mouth when you cough or sneeze etc.