Employees at Boston’s Museum of Science are Reaping the Benefits of Workplace Wellness

Sitting at your desk all day, day after day, could be having a more negative affect on your health than you may realize. Office workers are growing more sedentary, and less healthy each year, and employers are taking notice. Many employers are instituting workplace fitness programs, in an effort to keep employees healthy and productive.

The Museum of Science in Boston, MA is one such employer, with a number of programs in place to encourage a more active and healthy lifestyle for its employees. In its three years of operation, the program has been more successful than even its organizers expected. “We make science and math fun. We thought we could do the same for wellness,” said Wayne M. Bouchard, the museum’s chief operating officer.

While three quarters of American workplaces do provide wellness programs, the Museum’s programs are a little more fun, and have really been effective at getting employees involved, and actually improving their health and well-being.

The Museum’s workplace wellness program’s biggest success has been its weight-loss effort, which has helped employees shed 750 pounds over the last two years. Nationally, people who lose weight through workplace wellness programs shed about a pound the first year, keeping it off for at least three years. But many of the 57 employees who participated in the Science Museum’s program did much better than that, with several losing over 50 pounds.