Poor physical and mental health of employees create significant problems in the workplace. Physical activity (PA) has been shown as an effective strategy for preventing and treating numerous physical and mental health issues as well as work performance outcomes. However, there are many barriers to taking part in PA (such as lack of time) with participation rates typically low. Providing PA in paid work time might be a way to overcome these issues, yet employers’ and employees’ opinions of this concept are unknown. The aim of this study was to explore employee and employer perspectives of PA in paid work time. Workplaces were recruited through existing contacts on the research team. Focus groups and interviews were conducted with employees and managers at one University and two executive non-departmental public bodies in central Scotland with mainly desk-based employees. Both managers and employees were involved to gain perspectives throughout the organisational hierarchy and were interviewed separately to reduce social desirability bias. All discussions were digitally recorded and transcribed verbatim. Data were analysed thematically for both managers and employees but due to significant overlap in themes between the groups, these are reported together in the results. Three out of five organisations approached took part in this qualitative study. Two individual interviews were held with strategic managers, five focus groups with middle managers (n = 16) and nine with employees (n = 45). Benefits were anticipated by managers and employees for both employees themselves and the organisation and included improved mental health, productivity and more favourable perceptions of the employer. Despite these widely acknowledged benefits, significant barriers were identified and included the structure and nature of the working day (high workload, front line job requirements), workplace culture and norms (resentment from colleagues, no break culture) and organisational concerns (cost of lost time, public perceptions). This study suggests that there are significant barriers to PA in paid work time. Whilst numerous anticipated benefits were conveyed by both employees and managers, PA in paid work time is unlikely to become common place until changes in attitudes and the culture towards movement at work occur.

中文翻译：

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基于办公桌的员工在带薪工作时间的体育锻炼：对雇主和员工观点的定性研究。

员工的身心健康状况不佳，会在工作场所造成严重问题。身体活动（PA）已被证明是预防和治疗众多身心健康问题以及工作绩效结果的有效策略。但是，参加PA的障碍很多（例如时间不足），参与率通常很低。在带薪工作时间中提供PA可能是克服这些问题的一种方法，但是雇主和雇员对此概念的看法尚不清楚。这项研究的目的是探讨有薪工作时间中，PA的员工和雇主的观点。通过研究团队中的现有联系人来招聘工作场所。在苏格兰中部的一所大学和两个行政非部门公共机构的雇员和经理进行了焦点小组和访谈，主要是基于办公桌的雇员。经理和员工都参与了整个组织层次结构中的见解，并分别接受了采访，以减少社会期望偏差。所有讨论均以数字记录并逐字记录。对经理和员工均进行了主题化的数据分析，但由于各组之间的主题存在重大重叠，因此将这些结果一起报告。与之接触的五分之三的组织参加了该定性研究。与战略经理进行了两次个人访谈，与中层经理（n = 16）进行了五个焦点小组访谈，与雇员（n = 45）进行了九次访谈。经理和员工都期望员工和自己的组织受益，其中包括改善精神健康，提高生产力以及对雇主的更满意的看法。尽管获得了这些公认的好处，但仍发现了重大障碍，包括工作日的结构和性质（高工作量，一线工作要求），工作场所的文化和规范（同事的不满，不休息的文化）和组织的担忧（损失的成本）时间，公众的看法）。这项研究表明，在带薪工作时间中，有很大的障碍阻碍PA。尽管员工和管理人员都传达了许多预期的好处，但在态度和工作移动文化发生变化之前，PA在带薪工作时间中不太可能变得司空见惯。