New research from Hussle reveals that 70% of UK workers say their work routine increases sedentary behaviour, while 62% are concerned about the long-term health impact of their job. For employers already grappling with rising stress, burnout, and engagement challenges, this should be a wake-up call. Because while hybrid working has removed many of the traditional pressures associated with office-based routines, it has also reduced something else: movement.
For many employees, physical activity used to be built into the working day without them necessarily thinking about it. Walking to the station, cycling to work, taking the stairs, walking across the office to speak to a colleague or leaving the building at lunchtime. None of these activities necessarily counted as “exercise”, but collectively they created regular opportunities to move.
Now, the journey from bedroom to kitchen table can take seconds. Meetings that once required a walk across the office happen on screen, and desk-lunch culture continues to run strong. With fewer physical cues telling us to get up and move, sitting for hours can quickly become the default.
“We have to stop thinking about movement as something that happens separately from work,” says Pauline Alonso, Wellness Expert at Hussle. “For many hybrid employees, work is now where a significant proportion of sedentary behaviour happens, so employers have a role to play in making movement part of the working culture.”
That does not mean forcing employees into fitness challenges or filling calendars with compulsory exercise sessions. It means looking at how work is structured and identifying where movement can naturally become part of the day.
This is particularly important because one of the biggest mistakes employers can make is treating exercise as something employees should simply fit in around work. Telling someone who has spent eight hours sitting at a desk to “go to the gym after work” misses the bigger picture. The issue is not simply whether someone completes a workout, but how much movement they get throughout the rest of their day.
“A 45-minute workout does not cancel out an entire day of sitting,” says Alonso. “Employers should be thinking about the whole working day and asking where they can create natural opportunities for people to stand, walk and move more.”
That could be as simple as encouraging walking meetings where appropriate, building movement breaks into long virtual sessions, creating a culture where employees feel comfortable stepping away from their screens, or encouraging people to use their lunch break to get outside rather than eat at their desk. The other issue is that workplace wellbeing itself needs to become more flexible.
An in-office gym, for example, might work well for someone who lives near the office and is there five days a week. It is less useful for someone who works from home three days a week, travels between locations or lives nowhere near their employer’s chosen facility.
If work has become more flexible, workplace fitness needs to follow suit. Employees should have access to different ways, places and times to be active, rather than being offered a one-size-fits-all benefit and expected to make it work.
“Employers need to move away from a one-size-fits-all approach,” says Alonso. “The goal should be accessibility. If someone is working from home, they should have just as much opportunity to benefit from workplace wellbeing as someone sitting in the office.”
Ultimately, employers do not need to turn the workplace into a gym. They need to make movement feel normal, and that starts with leadership. If senior teams take walking meetings, encourage proper breaks, and demonstrate that stepping away from a screen is acceptable, employees are more likely to follow. It also means looking beyond whether employees technically have access to a wellbeing benefit and asking whether the way the organisation actually works supports healthier behaviours.
The question is no longer simply: “Do our employees have access to exercise?”
It should be: “Does the way we work make it easier or harder for them to move?”
Hybrid working is not inherently unhealthy. In fact, its flexibility could be one of its greatest wellbeing advantages. But only if employers rethink what flexibility really means; giving people freedom over where they work should also mean giving them the freedom, support and opportunity to decide how they stay active.
The future of workplace wellbeing may not be about getting employees back into the office, or even getting them into the gym, but in how the workplace can best adapt to an ever-evolving workforce.
