Do you sit at your desk for long periods of the day? Have you ever experienced back, neck or shoulder pain after a long day at the office? Perhaps you put on a few pounds after taking a desk job. Research has shown that people who work desk jobs are likely to lose muscle tone, experience back pain, gain weight and suffer from increased stress. That's because inactivity, poor posture and bad eating habits tend to plague those who sit at a desk throughout the day.

One study by the American Council on Exercise (ACE) showed that those whose jobs require them to sit at least six hours a day are twice as likely to be overweight as those who sit for less than 45 minutes a day at work. So what can you do to stay fit but keep your desk job? Check out these tips.

♦ Stay active
♦ Get the right equipment
♦ Protect your back
♦ Watch what goes in

Making a conscious effort to stay active, developing good habits and watching what you eat can help you fight the desk-bound bulge. Try sharing these tips with your staff to encourage them to remember their health throughout the day.

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Time is too slow for those who wait,
too swift for those who fear,
too long for those who grieve,
too short for those who rejoice,
but for those who love,
time is eternity.

~Henry Van Dyke
 

Just for Laughs

Finding a good work-life balance is difficult in many professions, but the business field is one that is particularly associated with long hours, unusual schedules, and a general inability to leave work at the office. The volatile and demanding nature of the job leaves many professionals wanting to reduce their work commitments to make more time for their personal lives.

If you’re one of those overworked souls, here are a few ways to avoid burnout and restore sanity to your work schedule.

     1.  Learn to delegate and share work wisely
     2.  Perform a workload triage
     3.  Make sure you've got a backup
     4.  Help users help themselves
     5.  Implement a rotation to cover special projects and to staff after-hours duties

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I've always worked beyond normal business hours. Twenty years ago that meant going back to the office after dinner if I needed access to files that were on our network. In those early days, there was no internet, no connection to the office and having a computer at home was a luxury that few people could afford – including me.

Fast forward – it's Sunday night, I'm sitting in the den. There is an HD movie on TV. I've just gotten a cup of coffee, let the dog in, and if my timing is right, the accounts receivable batch that I've started posting will have just finished. I can look at my network drive for the excel spreadsheet that I need and then send a report to my printer at work so that it's there when I get to work in the morning. And to think I'm doing everything from my laptop. Maybe I don't need to go to the office after all . . . well, not really.

So – what is it that makes this quantum leap in productivity possible? Although the internet and the laptop play important roles, what really makes me productive is my secure connection to the office network. You may have heard of it as a VPN (Virtual Private Network) connection. How does it work? I authenticate to the office using information and a set of protocols that only someone who belongs inside our network would know. The most common way to make the physical connection is through a firewall. After that, you need to make contact with your server, your desktop or both. Small Business Server customers are in luck – with a secure connection in place you have all the software you need to make a connection to your office computer. At our office, we also use a special server called a terminal server so that we have access to every network resource even if we only have a laptop that we take home.

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The Problem With Power

We live in the Information Age where countless data is created, transmitted, and stored. We live in the Electronics Age where numerous electric-powered machines aid in business and household tasks, as well as entertain and inform us. The reality of living in this time of technological innovation is that the power to run these machines can't keep up (at least not yet). What was built years ago for powering factories producing manufactured goods is struggling to adapt to provide continuous, sufficient-grade power to sensitive electronics processing valuable information. Adequate surge suppression and backup sources of power are a necessity to keep your business up and running. Spring weather increases the likelihood of electrical disturbances that can cause downtime and lack of productivity. And It's not just a total blackout that can cause a problem.

Read on to find out about the many power events that affect your critical data. And then, if you feel you are not prepared, contact us to find out what it would take to protect your business:

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