[Infographic] Should You Have an Aquarium in Your Office?

Throughout the USA, stress levels have continuously escalated over the past few decades. The main source of stress adults are facing is related to their work. Workplace stress is steadily increasing as work environments become more driven, controlling and cutthroat. Employees can be left struggling to maintain their work-life balance, managing their workload, with fatigue, and even with conditions such as depression and anxiety.

Also read: Want to Save Billions? Stop Ignoring Mental Health

Whilst some individuals thrive under pressure and living life in the fast lane, others feel completely overwhelmed working in a fast paced environment, which in turn leads to lower productivity, lower well-being and esteem and more absences.

Research seems to suggest that aquariums could be an affordable and simple solution to this. Employees’ well-being and their mood they are can quickly sweep through the workplace. If you have a large proportion of staff with low morale, not only is this an issue for them and their productivity, but it also makes it difficult to keep the rest of your workforce in high spirits.

It is estimated that work-related stress costs American companies a minimum of $300 billion each year in lost productivity – this is a serious issue which most companies tackle directly, using strategies and methods to reduce stress in the workplace.

Some simple suggestions include; encouraging your employees to take short breaks, either to exercise or just to get fresh air; plan the work or office space well to let plenty of light in and encourage interaction; offer more flexibility in working hours and; not encouraging overtime.

Another more recent discovery discovered in a 2011 study, is that nature in the workplace has a direct link with decreased stress and health complaints. One such form of “nature contact”, which is both easy and cheap to introduce into any office space, is an aquarium.

You can take a look at the studies and benefits of keeping fish, and how they reduce stress in the workplace in the ’10 Reasons Why You Need an Aquarium in Your Workplace’ Infographic below.

Watching fish is proven to lower stress, reduce heart rate and improve overall mood. Given the huge array of size aquariums come in, any size office or workplace can accommodate a fish tank, which is a small price to pay in reducing the levels of wok-related stress.