You exercise, you eat right, you get a good night's sleep, and you try to stay organized; you're doing everything you can to manage your own stress. But what if you work with someone who isn't managing stress well?

Regardless of where you might work, there are a lot of reasons for stress in today's workplace -- threats of layoff, increased workload due to reduced staffing, and so on. When you add in all the non-work-related causes of stress, it's no wonder some people aren't managing the pressure well. And, no matter how well you handle stress, when a co-worker is stressing you'll be affected by it.

So what can you do to help a stressed out co-worker? As long as you don't take on the reasons for their stress (e.g. taking their workload), it's a good thing to help out. And, if you happen to be the boss, it's imperative that you do so in order to maintain a positive workplace and to prevent productivity from slipping. Some ideas:

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Keep lifting the fork to your mouth and you'll have to fork over some cash. This is essentially the message the state of Alabama is sending out to its 37,000+ employees.

The state has already had a policy in place where smokers can either quit their habits or they must contribute to the costs of their health insurance. Recently state employees were told that they have a year to get their BMI under 35 or else they'll be charged $25 per month toward their insurance costs.

The state also has an upcoming plan in place for 2010 where, if state employees don't take free health screenings the state offers for them, they'll also be charged. If employees take the screening and conditions such as high blood pressure or high cholesterol are found, the employees will be offered free doctor visits and wellness programs to help improve the problem. A year later, they'll be screened again and if there's no improvement, they will be charged, too.

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There are many reasons that fast food isn't exactly a healthy choice. Most items are high in fat. The calorie count is certainly up there, too. But, there's a new reason to avoid fast food -- sometimes the sense of humor of the staff is a little off.

OK. So it's not fair to generalize. But this one Burger King restaurant in Ohio has some employees with a seriously strange sense of humor. An employee thought it would be funny to take a bubble bath in the restaurant's large, stainless steel sink. Another employee filmed the soapy caper and other employees -- including a manager -- looked on. The video was posted on MySpace.com, but has since been deleted.

Burger King released the following statement: "Burger King Corp. was just notified of this incident and is cooperating fully with the health department. We have sanitized the sink and have disposed of all other kitchen tools and utensils that were used during the incident. We have also taken appropriate correction action on the employees that were involved in this video. Additionally, the remaining staff at this restaurant is being retrained in health and sanitation procedures."

I should hope so. After all, I don't think this is quite what was meant by the "employees are required to wash hands" policy.

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Money talks, and that's true for weight loss also. A new study has shown that people will lose weight for money, even if it's just a little. The best use of this information may not be for you to necessarily reward yourself at home (although if that works then go for it!) but for your employer to offer you incentives at work. Obviously having healthy employees benefits business in many ways, so by offering money to staff with healthy habits and weight loss everybody wins.

Apparently there are more studies in the works to find what the best dollar amounts are and if results and incentives work in the long term. How much would it take for you to lose weight? Honestly, any amount would encourage me (considering it's something I want to do anyway) but the more the better!

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Employers should assist depressed employees in order to curb absenteeism, according to a new study released this week.

In addition, it is in the best interests of the employer to help employees maintain proper health (mentally and physically). In a world of personal responsibility, the daily grind of employment can sometimes tax employees beyond their limits, if you ask me.

It's unfortunate that many employers, according to the study, view mental health coverage as a "financial black hole," most likely because there is very little measurable cost savings to be had. Unfortunately, the reverse it true -- the most you help employees help themselves, the more productive they'll be and the fewer days they'll miss. Someone get a bean counter in on that thought.

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We've all had crummy experiences while flying, but with Delta 'crummy experience' seems to be a theme. Late departures and late arrivals, which always ends up forcing me and the others around me to run full speed across enormous airports trying to make connecting flights. The amount of sprints I've completed while flying Delta are probably the reason I stay so lean. My air travel was no different this past weekend.

Now, I understand that air travel and flight schedules are often subject to delay. We'd be fools not to know it's a possibility. I'd at least like the airline employees to be considerate and motivated to do what they can to improve the situation of their customers. Compassionate even. My flight out of Chicago was delayed about two hours Monday morning, which was to make it impossible for me to make my connecting flight home. Unfortunately this was going to force me to miss my four year old daughter's special preschool program, which was really important to her. I give her the news in the morning and as expected, she was devastated. I'm bummed and torture myself over missing it throughout my entire two hour Chicago to Atlanta flight.

As my friend and I debark the plain we check to see which gate our flight home will be leaving from when we are surprised to see that the original flight we were booked for has also been delayed (surprise, surprise!) and is now boarding. With that, while carrying laptops, purses and more we run full speed across what I believe they listed to be about seven football fields in length to Terminal D. We bolt and weave to gate D26, and arrive exactly at the moment the ticket lady changes the sign from boarding to closed. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh!

It seems all too common for people to feel stressed out, complain about, and be generally unhappy at and about their jobs. It's a rare thing to be totally excited that it's Monday morning and time to go to work, isn't it? That's so sad! But there are things you can do, as an employer or as an employee, to help make your workplace a happier place.

I came across an article entitled "The Happiness Project," and although it's focused mainly on things employers can do, I think many of the ideas can be beneficial for the average working person also. If you happen to be in a position of management or power, then you really should look at how you can be making things better for those under you. And if you're not, still don't be discouraged. Understanding and knowledge are powerful things, and if you have a clear picture of what a healthy, happy work environment looks like, you might be surprised at how much easier it becomes to create or find one.

One of the biggest things that affects happiness and satisfaction on the job is control. We all like to be in control of our lives, be it in the big picture or just a daily snapshot. Do you have choices at work? Freedom to do tasks in your own way or to make schedule changes when you need to can do a lot for job satisfaction. And when it comes to your schedule having a tolerable commute is also a major player. Whether it's dealing with rush hour traffic, or just a long drive that takes time out of your personal life, a bad commute can make for a bad job experience.

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The CDC says that as many as 66% of Americans are overweight or obese, and although that may be no big surprise (yes, we know it's a problem!) this may come as a shock: that number of unhealthy people translates to a cost of $117 billion dollars a year to the economy, or more! Obviously the connection between health and economics is becoming hard to ignore, which is prompting more and more employers to take a look at just what they're doing to help combat this problem.

Different companies are taking different approaches, and like you'd expect some are better than others. Some places, like Merrill Lynch for example, are seemingly going in exactly the wrong direction. They're reducing the number of sick days available to their employees, thinking that less days available means less days taken and therefore less money spent. But that really does nothing to fix the underlying problem of why the employees are missing so many days to begin with, and if anything it may have people who are still sick coming back to work early and infecting others.

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I work on the Workplace Fitness feature here at That's Fit, so I read all the time about health at work, and how employers can have major impacts on peoples lives when they make the efforts towards health and wellness programs. Case in point: a new study found that employees who participated in a health program through their job improved their blood pressure and diabetes management by 9% and 15% respectively. There were also other benefits for both employers and employees, such as decreased numbers of absenteeism and fewer and workplace accidents.

With the health care situation the way it is these days, and since healthier people cost less money, I should think employers would be all over this like white on rice. It is slowly catching on, though, so do ask about it at your work. If you have a program available to you then by all means take advantage! And if you don't, well then let your voice be heard that you'd like to see one.

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Whether you're in management and have employees under you who may be affected, or if you're just a "peon" looking to influence your employer towards a more health-conscious culture at work, the reasons for encouraging fitness and health at work are pretty much undebatable. What it really comes down to is that healthy people are productive people, and having productive people in a place of business is always a good thing. So if you're compiling a case for your boss to start up a wellness program, or just looking for your own inspiration, here are 10 reasons to encourage fitness and health at work:

• Reduced absenteeism and reduced health care costs. Fitness boosts the immune system, so fit employees are less likely to catch every cold that makes its way around the office and call in sick or visit the doctor.
• Higher productivity. Fit employees have more energy, and are better able to stay focused and work harder and faster than out of shape, sleepy workers.

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