When it comes to stress relief at work a 10-minute on-site therapeutic massage can achieve wonders. It has been shown to reduce stress, well-documented as a factor that reduces productivity. A new invention in Britain, the Egg, gives workers a whole 15 minutes of productive relaxation. It joins scores of devices and massage therapies that may help solve an expensive problem for employers. Workers, challenged to produce more with fewer people, are succumbing to stress in increasing numbers.
The Egg, reported in European Occupational Health and Safety, is a self-contained and automated massage treatment pod. Users step into the pod, lie down on a massage bed and press a button to begin the treatment. Inside, the lights dissolve to a star-studded sky. Relaxing music circulates and aromatherapy oils are released into the air, while gentle vibrations in the bed work up from the feet through the entire body. The experience promises “total relaxation of the mind, body and spirit within 15 minutes,” according to promotional copy about the device.
The modern workplace is creating an automatic market for the Egg, its cousins and therapists who specialize in on-site massage.
As reported in the Columbia News Service, in 1992, the United Nations dubbed stress the “20th- century epidemic.” In 1996, the World Health Organization elevated its status to that of a “worldwide epidemic.” Today, workplace stress costs American companies $300 billion a year in poor performance, absenteeism and health costs
The British mental health charity, Mind, said recently that stress at work in Britain is causing depression and anxiety in one in five Britons and costing the country UK