Keeping fit is important for your well being as well as being a great way to keep stress levels down. Fitting exercise into your work day can be a difficult task, but is well worth the effort. Decide what type of fitness training you would like to do – power walking, yoga, jogging, swimming, or a mixture. Even a short walk will do you good – try getting off a stop before you need to and walk the rest of the way, run up the stairs instead of using the elevator and take a walk in the park at lunch time instead of sitting hunched over your desk.

As far as gyms go, there fitness classes for all abilities, with times to suit office workers. You could take a pre breakfast yoga class, a lunchtime spinning class or go for an after work weight training session. If your office building has its own gym you could come into work a little early and spend twenty minutes using the facilities.

Christmas Office Parties in New York

The most special time of the year is approaching fast, and many businesses are now busy preparing for their Christmas office parties. These end-of-the-year celebrations are often regarded as an effective way of rewarding staff for their hard work, boosting employee morale, and starting a new year with a positive frame of mind.

However, some have claimed that corporate holiday parties are not as popular as they once were, and that in many cases they are below staff expectations and fail to fulfil their purpose. Seamless (an online food ordering and delivery company based in New York) surveyed more than 1,000 companies and asked them about their Christmas celebration habits and plans. The data they collected showed some interesting trends, which are summarised below.

Lower overall expenditure

One of the main conclusions reached following the survey is that the belt-tightening measures taken by many companies have also affected the overall expenditure allocated to their annual Christmas parties. There seems to be an increasing preference among employers to organise office parties on a budget, since approximately 42 per cent of all firms surveyed said they were spending less than $25 per person on their corporate Christmas event. In fact, only 10 per cent of companies spent between $51 and $100 / employee, and a further 20 per cent opted for a mid-range budget of $25 to $50 / person.

Open bars are no longer the norm

The Seamless survey also revealed that only 50 per cent of the companies interviewed were planning on including an open bar during their corporate Christmas party. In 2012, the percentage of no-alcohol office parties in the city barely reached 21 per cent, but two years later that figure had more than doubled at 44 per cent. Moreover, the survey revealed other data related to the type of holiday entertainment offered at end-of-the-year office parties: up to 70 per cent of the businesses surveyed mentioned there would be no dancing at their annual Christmas event.

Thanksgiving is an opportunity to show employees how much you appreciate them. It is also an occasion to encourage teams to give back to the community. Rather than organize an office feast with turkey and all the trimmings, giving back is a great way to commemorate the holiday. Employers can do this by encouraging employees and making it easier to volunteer. Giving back as a group helps build a community spirit in the office while promoting charitable causes.

What Can Your Business Do to Help the Less Fortunate at Thanksgiving?

There are many people in New York City that will celebrate Thanksgiving with very little. Businesses can show their appreciation for all their good fortunes by serving a meal at a local charity or church or helping to deliver meals. The Real Life Church at Hunts Point in the Bronx and Greenpoint Reformed Church in Brooklyn are just two community churches that serve meals during Thanksgiving. Bringing together colleagues to help with food preparation, serving or clean-up is a fulfilling opportunity to build your team while giving back.

There are dozens of organizations that are willing to partner with businesses to provide nutritional meals to less fortunate New Yorkers. City Harvest and the New York Food Bank welcomes volunteers as well as donations of canned foods and non-perishable items. Both organizations see volunteer positions fill up quickly during the holiday season, but there are smaller pantries and food banks that also need help. In addition to serving dinner to some 350 people on any given day, the Yorkville Common Pantry will also be offering a home-cooked meal on November 23. Located at 8 East 109th Street between Fifth Avenue and Madison Avenue, the pantry welcomes volunteers on weekdays during the lead up to Thanksgiving. Each day, God’s Love We Deliver delivers three-course meals to 1,500 New Yorkers that find themselves homebound. During Thanksgiving, the charity welcomes drivers to deliver specially decorated gift baskets along with their meals. New York Cares also distributes food to community centers and senior centers throughout the city.

Free, Fun Thanksgiving Events in New York City

From the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade to the Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree Lighting, late November host some of New York’s most iconic events. Winter’s Eve at Lincoln Square is a holiday celebration that brings together more than 20,000 people. Free entertainment and live music are held alongside food tastings from over 30 area restaurants and eateries. First organized in 2000, the event includes the Upper West Side’s only tree lighting ceremony. Winter’s Eve at Lincoln Square offers businesses a fun opportunity to bring together coworkers and their families while giving back to the community. New York Cares is one of the organizations that use the event as an opportunity to help the less fortunate, including with a coat drive. The charity also welcomes volunteers to help during Winter’s Eve.

If you plan on throwing an office Christmas party in New York City, then you will want to go all out to turn your party into a special event. As you put your party together, there are a few guidelines you should follow to make it easier for your guests to have a good time.

Places To Have Your Party

New York City is filled with great places where you can have your office Christmas party. There are five places in particular that will offer you and your employees a memorable Christmas party event.

Minus5 Ice Bar

The Mius5 Ice Bar is made completely of ice, but it is open all year round. This chilling venue is ideal for a memorable office Christmas party.

The Elm

The Elm is a relatively new restaurant in Brooklyn that has been growing quickly in popularity. It features four-star food and an excellent wait staff.

Malbec and Tango House

The Malbec and Tango House has a very rural feel to it, which makes it unique for New York City. It has a larger hall that will definitely create atmosphere for your office Christmas party.

Andaz Wall Street

The Andaz Wall Street room is fun because it is a throwback to the 1960’s. You feel like you walked back in time the moment you walk through the door. This room could bring back some nostalgic Christmas memories for your employees.

New York City is an enormous city with a lot of industry, a lot of cars and a lot of people. Due to the sheer size and population density of New York City, the area puts out a lot of pollution in a given year. Despite this, the city has taken great strides toward reducing its environmental impact and the amount of pollution it produces on a yearly basis. As the city in the United States with one of the most advanced “green” building and “green” industrial sectors, New York City is doing a lot to lessen its impact on the environment.

Air Pollution

According to the city government of New York, air pollutants contribute to roughly 6 percent of deaths city-wide on an annual basis. Due to this, air pollution is taken very seriously in the city and there are a number of programs in place to lessen air pollution.

One way that business owners can lessen their air pollution imprint on the city is by taking part in the CATS system. CATS stands for “Clean Air Tracking System” and it monitors the installation of boilers around the city. CATS standards tell you what boilers you can install that are in line with current New York City air quality standards. The New York City division of Environmental Protection has a number of resources you can use to learn about this.

Water Pollution

New York City is a place that is filled to the brim with people, whether living or working there. Millions of cars go through the city on a given day, and this has created a few unique issues that the city has had to work through. Among these is the issue of parking. Since New York City has a limited amount of real estate, people can’t just park wherever they want to. Instead, they need to follow a set of guidelines when they park in New York city. The following will help give you a better understanding of the specific rules and practices used in New York City to help regulate traffic.

Alternate Side Parking

One popular method New York City uses to keep parking organized is called alternate side parking. This city-wide measure requires drivers to park on the side of the street that corresponds to the day of the week. On odd-numbered days, drivers need to park on the side of the street where the addresses have odd numbers. On even-numbered days, drivers need to park on the side of the street that has even-numbered addresses. By using this parking plan, the city stops people from parking on both sides of the street and creating a bottleneck on smaller side streets.

Metered Parking

Parking meters are ubiquitous in New York City and should always be properly filled. New York City employs a brigade of traffic enforcement officers whose sole duty is to find people who don’t fill their meters. In some cities, you can get away with not paying the meter when you’re just running into a store to grab something quickly. In New York City, you should always pay the meter even if you won’t be in the spot for long enough to get your money’s worth.

For executives and workers planning a business lunch or just one with friends, there are choices galore in Manhattan. Several varieties of cuisine may be found and a number of establishments receive five star ratings.

“Blake & Todd Restaurant” – and caterers – is a Midtown staple lunch stop for hungry local businessmen and women. They are known for their prompt, polite serving staff. Five-Star quality pizza and deli foods are their mainstay. Blake & Todd’s can handle last minute catering duties for office functions. They also deliver, so any lunchtime dining situation is easily covered.

The “21 Club” was originally a speakeasy with elaborate ways to dump the alcohol into the sewer system in the event of a Prohibition raid. Old traditions remain in its jacket-required policy. This landmark four-story townhouse contains a ground-floor bar that still holds a Capote-like air. Classic à la carte offerings such as crab-crusted halibut, grilled venison, elk and bacon-wrapped wild boar and Berkshire pork belly comfit may be more expensive than the lunch crowd ordinarily pays. The Club also offers a more affordable prix-fixe menu that contains savory choices to suit everyone’s taste.

A Central Park West super-luxury penthouse recently sold for $80 million. A duplex on the 18th floor of the same address went for $75 million and another nearby for $60+ million. A penthouse at the Time Warner Center on the 78th floor sold for $7,831 per square foot, or a $65 million total. Previously the penthouse apartment at The Mark held the record for the most expensive apartment in New York. It had sold for $60 million. Some similar apartments sold for around $30 million as recently as two years ago.

Monthly maintenance fees at $13,000+ and taxes that run $16,000+ mean an extra $356,000+ annually to live in the apartment purchased. Many apartments in this price range include master bedroom suites with an office area, his and hers bathrooms, dressing rooms, and closets. An extra-large living room with floor to ceiling windows adds to the openness experienced inside. The separate dining room and chef’s kitchen including a pantry and complete laundry center are all additional perks for this price. Multiple bedrooms and baths are usually included as well.

New York City could be considered the home of philanthropy. The city has a long history of giving by its many wealthy residents. The majority of the city’s many parks exist due to the efforts of giving women. Betsy Head Park was named after the British immigrant who bequeathed the city a large amount of money when she died in 1907 for building recreational facilities. Half of her estate was dedicated to children’s welfare improvement and the other half to purchasing grounds for healthy recreation.

In 1961 the estate of Loula D. Lasker provided $600,000 to build Lasker Rink in Central Park. While she was alive, Ms. Lasker worked actively in Hadassah and took great interest in alleviating housing problems within the city.

New York City is known for a lot of different things. One of the things that New York City is most famous for is the long list of well respected inventors that have called the city home over the years. Many inventors that have changed the world came out of New York City. Also, many of the most widely used products in the world were invented in New York City by New Yorkers. The following is a short list of some of the more widely acclaimed inventors to come out of New York City.

George Herman Babcock

Mr. Babcock was a mechanical engineer from New York City. He was born in 1832 and he was the 6th president of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers and had many patents. He patented quite a few different types of pumps and steam engines. Despite his many accomplishments, he’s best known for his invention of a specialized water boiler. The boiler was a unique “tube” design that avoided the explosions that were far too common at the time with most boilers. This design was used for everything from steam heating to steam power. The business he created has sustained throughout the years to become a multifaceted energy concern. The company that Babcock created is now heavily involved in the development of nuclear power and nuclear technologies.