With Labor Day weekend right around the corner, many of us are getting ready to enjoy some well-earned vacation time. In today's world, however, breaking away from the office means more than physically not being there. Between waking up with our smartphones to checking social media, most of us will find ourselves responding to emails, returning voicemails and interacting with Facebook when we should be soaking up the paid time off. In fact, a recent TripAdvisor survey of 16,100 employed respondents reported that 77% percent of U.S. respondents say they have worked on vacation during the past year, with 91% stating that they check work e-mail while they're away.

TotalWellness is proud to call Omaha, Nebraska, home to our main headquarters.

The city has progressively expanded its economy and size, but through all the positive growth, we’ve also seen it struggle to provide opportunities for healthy living to its citizens and employees.

Influenza is one of the leading causes of employee absences.

The Society of Human Resource Management estimates that 10 to 12 percent of all employee absences are due to the flu virus. Each infected employee could miss up to six days of work and need up to two weeks to make a full recovery.

We hear it over and over again -- Americans work too much, don't use their vacation days, stay attached to the office all day and night and spend too much time at their desks. Today, on National Relaxation Day, we're calling on all of you to stop and take a deep breath. When the daily grind becomes too much to handle, try one of these simple stress relievers to bring peace and productivity back to your day.

American workers don’t use all their vacation days, leaving an estimated 577 million unused days on the table each year. Even when we do get the chance to get away, most of us take our work along for the ride, toting our laptops along and keeping our smartphones glued to our sides.

The 40-hour work week sounds like a pretty relaxing schedule to a lot of employed Americans. In fact, the United States is widely considered to be the most overworked nation in the industrialized world. According to the International Labor Organization, Americans work 137 more hours per year than Japanese workers, 260 more hours per year than British workers, and 499 more hours per year than French workers. The long hours and late nights are only getting longer and later, a problem that impacts our productivity, our health, and our relationships.

Experts tell us that the body consists of at least 60% water, in varying levels throughout our anatomy. It is well-known that water consumption is vital for survival, but our society often forgets the benefits of water consumption, especially in the workplace.

Health risk assessments (HRAs) have been around since the 1970s. Over the years, they were used as a supportive tool for physicians in discussing health with their patients. Today, the HRA is a self-reported measurement aide that helps to identify individual health risks based on questions about lifestyle, demographic characteristics, family history, physiological data and overall attitudes towards their wellness. 

From absenteeism due to illness to the cost of disability and workers’ compensation, poor health costs the U.S. economy more than a half a trillion dollars a year, according to a 2012 study by The Integrated Benefits Institute, a nonprofit research organization. You can cut down on these costs by taking proactive steps to reduce the impact of these four office illnesses. 

Many employers view absenteeism as a large source of loss for an organization and many companies commonly develop specific policies to combat the indirect costs of lost productivity. This common misconception encourages employees to avoid missing work when they’re sick, and often they’re unable to perform at their usual level of efficiency. Recent studies have shown that the combination of health care costs for the employee, coupled with their lack of productivity during the workday, has a far greater effect to an employer than if the individual had simply taken sick days and stayed home. This phenomenon of “presenteeism” is quickly becoming an emerging concern in the workplace.