How Office Work Affects Your Skin

Most of us have a love-hate relationship with our jobs – sure, it gives you the money you need on a daily basis, but it takes up so much of your time and freedom too. As it turns out, your job might also be costing you your skin health.

It’s not surprising that when people work outdoors, the effects of the sun are visible on their skin. But did you know desk work can also impact your skin? In fact, there are several ways your 9-to-5 could be harming your skin – but don’t worry, I’ve got some solutions that don’t involve hitting the lotto jackpot so you can retire.

Tech Neck

Tech neck is one of those modern-day problems that has appeared thanks to our reliance on technology. If you work at a desk, chances are that you’re spending the bulk of your day looking down at your computer screen, tablet, phone, or other tech. Angling your neck this way for so many hours every day can put creases in the skin and lead to premature neck wrinkles, which isn’t on anyone’s wish list.

What can you do about it? A simple adjustment of your monitor to raise it to eye level can help, but it also helps to incorporate a neck firming product into your skin care routine. Revision’s Nectifirm is a popular favorite for smoothing neck wrinkles.

Reduced Circulation

We’ve all heard the warnings about how bad it is for our health to be sitting for hours at a time. It’s probably not surprising, then, that the largest organ in your body – your skin – is affected too.

When you’re sitting for prolonged periods, your blood doesn’t circulate as well. Your skin needs that circulation to bring it oxygen and nutrients, so when your circulation is sluggish, your skin will look more dull and overall less healthy.

Getting your glow back is as simple as getting up and walking around more often throughout the day if you can. Stroll around by your desk while you take phone calls, take more bathroom breaks and trips to the water cooler, and find other ways to stand up and get your blood moving.

Stress

This isn’t always the case but many office jobs come with more than their fair share of work-related stress. Not only might your job itself be high-pressure but there will always be some stress that comes from commuting to and from the office, interacting with coworkers and managing inter-office politics, and so on.

Stress affects your skin in several ways at the same time:

• It sparks inflammation throughout your body including in your skin
• It causes your oil glands to overproduce oil, which can trigger acne breakouts
• It often makes symptoms worse or launches a flare-up of chronic skin conditions like eczema, psoriasis, and rosacea
• It speeds up your skin’s aging process by increasing the breakdown of the collagen and elastin that make your skin firm and smooth

The best way to counteract this is, of course, by reducing your stress if and when it’s possible. Find ways to cope with the stress, whether that’s yoga, meditation, breathing exercises, making more time for social fun, etc.

Dryness

This isn’t always the case but it’s a common problem – offices tend to have very dry air. They have low humidity to begin with and they often blast the air conditioning too, which makes the air even drier. All of that leads to dry skin.

You can help your skin by proactively using moisturizer twice daily – in your morning and nighttime skin care routines. This will help your skin retain moisture and make you less susceptible to the effects of low humidity. It also helps to keep moisturizer at your desk so you can apply it whenever your skin feels dry.

Squinting Wrinkles

Remember those neck wrinkles we talked about from using technology all day at work? The tech wrinkles don’t stop there. It’s common for desk workers to get eye fatigue from staring at their screens so much throughout each day. You’re probably squinting from that eye strain without realizing it, and this contributes to crow’s feet and other wrinkles around your eyes.

The go-to way to reduce eye strain so you squint less is the 20-20-20 rule: every 20 minutes, look away from your screen and look at something that’s 20 feet away for 20 seconds. But it also helps to use an anti-aging eye product in your skin care routine too.

Keeping Your Job Off Your Skin

No matter what your job is, it will probably affect your skin in some way – after all, it’s your environment for a third of every day, so it will have an impact. But with the tips and considerations above, you can lessen that impact so you can enjoy healthier, younger skin both at the office and in your free time.