Well-being in the office? Is that not expecting too much? Isn't it sufficient just to be healthy? Well, yes if you understand health as the mere absence of illness. People who for instance work constantly under stress or feel undervalued at work will feel low and dissatisfied, but are not ill in the medical sense. But on the other hand, neither are they really healthy. To feel truly healthy something more is needed, something which is not necessarily identifiable by medical science. Complete health incorporates both physical and mental health and psychological well-being. Health as an holistic concept is also the view supported by the World Health Organisation (WHO): "Health is the state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not the absence of illnesses and ailments".

How can such a state of health be attained? Certainly not with sporadic fits of physical exercise at the weekend. Success is far more likely to be achieved by dealing with peoples' health at the place where they spend a large part of their day or life: the workplace. More recent Workplace Health Promotion concepts consider the workplace as more than just a place where accidents and illness should be prevented. Well organised work and a satisfying job are equally important and can contribute towards promoting health and personal development.

In this brochure some suggestions are put forward on how work can be organised and how the necessary conditions can be created for people to develop their potential and to promote their health. You may well ask: why a brochure on office work? The reason is simple: the office is where 17 million people in Germany spend their working day. And because contrary to common opinion, office work is not entirely harmless.