Water and Work Health & Exercise

Water and Work Health & Exercise

It’s summer. It’s holiday time. However, for those of us left to sweat it out in the office – cramps, headaches, sore muscles and wish-I-was-on-holiday blues are at an all-time high.

Here are a few tips to keep you moving and grooving and in tip-top work able shape:

Relax those shoulders. Office workers, teachers prepping lessons, site work cost efficiency forecasts – we’ve all been there. Glued to your chair, deadlines looming, shoulders tensed, making you look more like of close relation of Gru’s than you care to think. Solution? Check your body posture every twenty minutes or so. If you’ve hunched over, simply relax your shoulders. Repeat until you learn to automatically check your desk posture while seated.

Stretch out the kinks. The simplest stretches can help reduce aches, stiffness and tension, decrease muscle spasm. The benefit is stretching can be performed while seated or standing, although standing will have a more overall body benefit.

Walk! As simple as that. Stand up, stretch out and perambulate around your work place. The ideal keep fit combo is walking to replenish your water bottle or water glass at your water cooler station.

Add water to all the above.  Make sure that you drink water throughout the day and after every relaxation technique and stretch.

Remember though, whether your office / workplace is icier than the Northern Sea because of the aircon. working more overtime than you do or its au naturel baking hot, both mean you can dehydrate quickly, so make sure that you increase your water intake to stave off dehydration and compensate the amount of energy expended while exercising.

Don’t have a water cooler? There is an easy solution. Contact AquAid’s experienced and professional in-house agents. We offer a free on-site survey to assess your water dispenser requirements and whether you are best served installing bottled or mainsfed water coolers.

How to Approach the Office Water Cooler Station

How to Approach the Office Water Cooler Station

With our lives now predominately online (often whether we like it or not) and our virtual conduct changing from day to day, it can be tricky negotiating one’s conduct in the physical realm. Added to this is with so many of us having worked remotely for such a long period, returning to work in the office or school can be a little challenging.

Change is good. Of course it is. There’s no progress or movement without change. Certain things though, don’t change. That’s also good. All said it’s good to know that in the physical realm thankfully some things never change.

How you approach the water cooler station happens to be one of those things that hasn’t changed. Perhaps the banter has (massively, for obvious reasons) and very likely you’re using an AquAid touch-free water dispenser, but overall, as you head out to hydrate, water cooler station etiquette remains as it was.

Should you be feeling a little out of touch (no, not the same as a no-touch water cooler) here are a few helpful pointers:

  • Don’t block access while you’re catching up with colleagues.
  • Don’t use your water cooler to wash your containers/mug, water glass, or bottle!
  • Keep your interaction light and impersonal. It may be important to you, but most likely hearing about your Aunt Violet’s verruca removal isn’t really what a workmate had in mind.
  • Do confab about work. There are countless studies that prove exchanging ideas and comparing notes away from your office, workspace or desk often results in a good outcome.
  • Keep the area tidy, help replace the bottled water if you can and if you note the bottle water supply is uncommonly low, make sure to alert your bottled water supplier. It may help to know that at AquAid, we have 23 local depots, meaning replacing your bottled water is quick and efficient.
Tips & Tricks from AquAid to Help You Keep Cool

Tips & Tricks from AquAid to Help You Keep Cool

With temperatures set to soar, here at AquAid Water Coolers we have compiled a set of tips & tricks to help you keep cool and hydrated wherever you are:

At the office/in the workplace:

  • Stay hydrated! Set an alarm clock on your pc, laptop or mobile to make sure that you visit the water cooler as often as needs be to replenish your drinking water.
  • For spaces without aircon, see if you can create a cross breeze – open windows (but keep blinds partially closed) on both sides or open a door on the opposite side of the area.
  • Drink cool (but not icy cold) liquids to help lower your body temperature. The water cooler station is perfect for this.
  • Turn off electronics: If they’re not being used, unplug electronic devices to keep them from generating unnecessary heat.

At home:

  • Fill up a hot water bottle with tap water, place in the freezer and you have a multi-purpose ice pack.
  • Stay hydrated! Kids may not feel thirsty, but it’s essential to stay hydrated, so make sure young ones are getting lots of water. If you’re planning to leave the house, freeze your reusable water bottles and take them with you.
  • Drink cool (but not icy cold) liquids to help lower your body temperature.
  • Turn off electronics: If they’re not being used, unplug electronic devices to keep them from generating unnecessary heat.
  • Don’t cook: Make yourself that Niçoise or Greek Salad or eat no need to heat food. Not only will this cool the body’s core, it will also keep cooking-related heat from filling up the house.

Out-and-about or indoors:

  • Avoid the heat: stay out of the sun and if possible don’t go out between 10h00 and 16h00 (the hottest part of the day) if you’re vulnerable to the effects of heat.
  • Have cool or at least room temperature baths or showers.
  • Drink cold drinks regularly, such as water and fruit juice. Reduce high-caffeine drinks intake.
  • Stay tuned to the weather forecast on the radio or TV, or at the Met Office website.
  • Apply sunblock and wear loose, cool clothing and a hat if you go outdoors.
  • Try wearing open shoes, sandals or flip-flops, however, if your skin is exposed, apply sunblock, Factor 30 at minimum.
  • Check up on friends, relatives and neighbours who may be less able to look after themselves.

It’s also good to bear in mind that wherever you require a temporary or permanent hydration solution in the UK, AquAid have a wide range of water coolers tailor-made to meet your requirements. We even offer a next day water delivery service for our Bottle-Fed Water Coolers.

Contact us today.

 

AquAid Customer Optima Site Solutions, celebrates 20 Years of Operations

AquAid Customer Optima Site Solutions, celebrates 20 Years of Operations

In spring 2002, three university mates clubbed together to launch their own recruitment agency focussed on the construction industry. Optima Site Solutions was born.

Having worked hard to build up their enterprise, they got through the global financial crisis and more recently Brexit, which has affected labour supply, and COVID, which gave a temporary shake up to the internal organisation. Proving time-and-time again that theirs is a sustainable and progressive business.

Optima now has more than 35 employees and supplies thousands of contractors to hundreds of clients each year; making it one of the largest recruitment agencies for construction in the UK. The company’s success has been built on years of effective trade and sticking to its core values of candidate quality, being transparent and best service for all.

Optima is well aware of the importance of their employees maintaining good hydration habits, consequently they installed AquAid bottled water coolers in their Head Office in 2008. Not only has this led to their organisation having constant supply of refreshing drinking water, it has also meant automatic donations to the charities they support through AquAid with each bottle of water delivered.

This partnership has also led to a water well, known as an Elephant Pump, to be built in a water scarce region in Zimbabwe on their behalf.  This pump, constructed using locally available materials, has a capacity to supply up to 10,000 litres of potable water per day, and due to its award winning design will do so for decades.

AquAid look forward to being able to present the Optima Site Solutions team with a certificate, a photo of the pump and a letter of thanks for their participation in this life-changing build in due course.

You can read more about Optima Site Solutions here.

AquAid Tyne & Wear Attains Charitable Donations Milestone

AquAid Tyne & Wear Attains Charitable Donations Milestone

By Fern Shaw

AquAid Tyne & Wear, operating since 2002, this year celebrates twenty years in the provision of an extensive range of innovative and high-quality water coolers and dispensers, along with a total commitment to offering superior services to their 2,000 customers.

Reaching this 20-year anniversary holds more than one reason for celebration though – it also marks an incredible achievement with the branch donating just under £500,000 to the charities AquAid have supported since our inception in 1998.

In view of this remarkable achievement, we spoke to Gordon and Emir Dobson, who own and operate AquAid Tyne & Wear and asked for their comment.

“We are absolutely delighted that our donations have reached this level: these small contributions we know have made a big difference to those who need it.

Here’s to the next £500,000!” ~ Emir Dobson, Owner Director – AquAid Tyne & Wear

Extracts below are from a letter to Emir and Gordon written by Ian Thorpe, CEO of The Africa Trust, in recognition of this milestone.

“Many congratulations as you approach your twentieth anniversary for the Tyne and Wear franchise of AquAid. I was astonished to learn that your franchise alone has raised such an extraordinary amount of money for charity during the last two decades. With a current donation figure of £487,915 I have no doubt that during your anniversary year, you will achieve the tremendous milestone of over half a million pounds raised.

Thank you for the part you and your colleagues at AquAid Tyne &Wear are playing in lifting people out of poverty to live healthier and more productive lives.

You have also raised over £240k for Christian Aid, and during the last three years alone, 3,321 people in Malawi have received entrepreneurial training (at a cost of £12 each) and assistance to start small businesses.“ ~ Ian Thorpe, Chief Executive – The Africa Trust

Should you too like to play a part in this phenomenal, philanthropic movement simply by keeping yourself and your company, organisation or school hydrated, contact AquAid today.

How using AquAid Water Coolers helps Pay it Forward

How using AquAid Water Coolers helps Pay it Forward

As the temperatures soar throughout the UK, so does the demand for chilled, refreshing drinking water.

At AquAid, where we have been in the business of providing a wide range of AquAid water coolers and water, both spring and bottled at source, for over 23 years, we understand this more than most. That’s why it’s important to us to be able to ensure that we are able to offer the very best in mainsfed and bottlefed water dispensers and bottled water.

We’re not only about the provision of high-quality water dispensers – we also firmly believe that providing water to those who may not necessarily have access to water as we do – is absolutely vital.

When it’s hot, keeping hydrated with AquAid is as simple as touching a button, but for millions of people globally, not having access, to not only drinking water but also any water, at all, is a daily reality.

Remember, this is just water for you, your children, family and community to drink. This is not the water needed to wash your clothes or utensils or water with which to irrigate your food crops. This is water to drink for your very survival.

Sadly, this is the day-to-day existence for many communities across Africa. During droughts and in the dry months access to water becomes increasingly difficult.

Which is just one reason, since our rather humble beginnings in 1998, we chose to work with sustainable charities like The Africa Trust and Christian Aid. Using donations from AquAid, both charities work tirelessly implementing sustainable water projects for communities in need.

As an AquAid customer isn’t it nice to know that while you’re sipping cool water from our water dispensers, there’s another water well or water project being installed in Africa, bringing clean drinking water to another community in need? We think so and we are sure you will agree.