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• Posted March 25, 2012, 2:45 p.m. - 12 years, 7 months ago

Five Interesting Facts about Work

 

 

Hopefully, you have one of those great office jobs that everyone seems to have in the movies (you know, where you can wear jeans and a hoodie to the office, stopping off to grab a double tall latte as you stroll in, iPod earphones dangling in a carefree manner where you spend all day sharing wisecracks with you co-worker and best friend before knocking off and heading out to a cool local nightclub). Unless you have one of those jobs, you might think that work is quite an uninteresting place.

 

Here’s why you would be wrong:

 

 

Your fingers’ commute
How far is your commute to the office? A survey conducted a few years ago revealed that workers in the UK face the longest commute in Europe, both in terms of time and distance. We spend, on average 45 minutes travelling to work and the average distance travelled is 8.5 miles. Remember,  we travel the same distance home every evening too. But our average daily journey is nothing compared to that of our fingers. If you are a typist, studies show that your fingers will travel 12.6 miles across the keyboard every single day! Might be time to treat them to a manicure (or at least a break).

 

Feeling Lost?
The average office worker spends up to 50 minutes every day looking for lost files and other items. This adds up to over four hours a week, or 194 hours a year (that’s over eight whole days!). Add to this the amount of time employees spend completing unnecessary tasks such as recreating PDF files from scratch (when editing them is so simple these days) and it’s a wonder anyone gets any new work done!

 

Water = Your Best Worker!
We all know that we should drink more water, but did you know that just a 2% drop in hydration levels can lead to difficulty focusing on the computer screen, short term memory problems and difficulty completing basic tasks. Hiring that water machine could be the best move your workplace makes.

 

M love M&M
A strange fact, but one which may make you consider your workplace traditions; Microsoft celebrate each and every yearly anniversary by bringing M&Ms into the office. So, if you want to join them, go buy yourself a bag each June 27th. Alternatively, why not see if you can start up an office tradition? Is there a special date worthy of similar jollity?

 

Try This One at Home
And finally, here’s one for you to try at home (not at work, you should be working!); a long standing belief has been that no piece of paper can be folded in half more than seven times. However, it seems as though some clever individuals have disproved this (though there are those that say they are not playing by the rules – it all seems very complicated). Why not see how well you can do? Go on, give it a go!

 

Photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/steveanddiane/3221102322/

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