1) Drink plenty of roomtemperature water. Ice-cold water freezes the vocal cords, which means they are not warmed up when you have to speak.

2) On cold mornings, breathe in and out through your nose. Not only are you saving yourself from a lot of pollution settling on your vocal cords, you will also not chill them with the icy air.

3) Dairy products, chocolate and red wine all form a lining on your throat and vocal area. Avoid these during working hours.

4) If you're a smoker, you have yet another reason to quit, as smoking damages your vocal cords and can lead to cancer of the throat.

5) If you lose your voice or "nd it's breaking or raspy, stop talking.

Ironically, easier said than done!

IF you work in a call centre, your voice is pretty much your meal ticket; lose it and say adios to your job. So how can you protect it as much as possible to ensure your vocal cords are not being damaged throughout the long days of endless chatter?

Corporate voice coaching is one option many companies are currently getting excited about. Although we often take our voice for granted, our vocal cords are muscles that need to be exercised like any others in our body.

Voice coach Poll Moussoulides, director of Voicecoach. ie and programme director of High Performance, a communication skills training company, likens voice coaching to physical exercise. "You don't run a marathon just because you can run, so how can people expect to talk on the phone all day just because they can speak?" he asks.

"Our voice is our primary communication tool, " he continues. "People often spend plenty of money on software programmes designed to communicate but take for granted the most important tool of all, their voices."

Moussoulides has done corporate training in voice management with companies such as IBM and O2 as well as RTE and the Department of Finance. "Employers have a responsibility to care for their employees' voices and it's in their interest. Call centre staff are at the coalface and should promote the right voice for the company, " he says.

"Company bosses are realising the necessity of ensuring that their front-line teams are promoting the company's ethos in the most appropriate way, " says Loretto Mara, managing director of High Performance, which gives corporate voice coach training to many Irish call centres including AIB, VHI and PricewaterhouseCoopers.

"Voice coaching focuses on helping people to use the voice naturally, being aware of basic voice care and enhancing natural strengths."

Moussoulides advises employees who work in call centres to monitor their work environment, check the volume levels on their headsets, try to breathe as correctly as possible, sit comfortably and find the optimal way of using their voices.

Most voice problems stem from incorrect breathing and regularly speaking at the wrong pitch for your voice.

Sometimes this occurs because people put on a 'phone voice' that is of a different pitch and depth to their own.

Smoking and caffeine also affect the vocal cords.

"The best thing to do is warm up your voice before using it, " says Moussoulides.

"After that, it's a matter of breathing and sitting properly." If call centre workers find themselves with a rasping voice after a particularly hectic night on the shandies, or worse, have lost their voice totally, Moussoulides says they should not use their voice but should contact a doctor. It could be a sign of something seriously wrong with the vocal cords. "Lozenges often numb the pain of the sore throat or damaged cord so you can't judge if you're making it worse."