Well at Work

Drawing on her pioneering research on the impact of built environments on integrative, whole person health and wellness, Esther M. Sternberg, MD, shows how we can design our workspace (at home, the office, or anywhere else) to enhance both physical and emotional wellbeing.

Staying healthy at work has never been more top-of-mind than it is today but staying healthy isn't the same thing as staying well. Wellbeing at work isn't just about good ventilation or removing germs and toxins from the air. It's also about the many aspects of the environment that impact not only how we feel physically, but also our stress levels, our mood, our focus, and our productivity.

Healthy workplaces need not be a luxury. Whether we work in a typical office building, our spare bedroom, or anywhere in between, Well at Work reveals how to design these spaces to support wellbeing across the seven domains of integrative health—stress and resilience, movement, sleep, relationships, nutrition, spirituality, natural environments and the air we breathe. Readers learn:

• How the environments we work in during the day can impact our sleep at night
• Optimal lighting and noise levels to reduce stress and keep us alert
• The right temperature and humidity to protect us from infection
• Why open-plan offices keep us more active
• The myriad benefits of having access to nature (and how to bring nature indoors)
• Office layouts that foster social interaction, but not distraction.
• Foods to enhance cognitive performance
• And more

Along the way, readers accompany Dr. Sternberg on her journey of discovery into the surprising ways that our physical environments affect our brains and bodies. Readers meet her colleagues in science and medicine, design and architecture, and building sciences who are striving to make workplaces more conducive to wellbeing. And they get a glimpse into the future of the workplace, where artificial intelligence and the metaverse will help us design environments that respond to our individual needs.

Above all, Sternberg offers a wealth of simple steps anyone can take to be—and stay—well at work.