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Sickness absence associated with shared and open-plan offices (2011)

ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

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Re: Sickness absence associated with shared and open-plan offices (2011)

#21

Post by hannob »

nautilus12 wrote: post #6

Do they determine that people just take more sick days because they need some level of privacy while they work or because they are actually are getting sick more often? I would think its the former, tbh

> Do they determine that people just take more sick days because they need some level of privacy while they work or because they are actually are getting sick more often?

That's not an either-or question. It could very plausibly be both. More people in a room means more potential for infections.

Re: Sickness absence associated with shared and open-plan offices (2011)

#23

Post by geff82 »

Just a personal observation: when I first moved into a giant-open plan office in 2015 in a big German company, I got significantly more sick. It was horror. Also, bathrooms were unusually crowded, probably helping spread diseases. Since then, it seems my body got a bit used to it and I am sick less often. But is is still more than the times before.

What might also increase days that people are not there: at least in our office we actively encourage people not to come back from sickness soon. We urge them to stay at home to avoid spreading disease further. While I personally might come back to a single office after 2-3 days, as I can't that easily infect other people in my private office, I stay away for a week more often now.

Re: Sickness absence associated with shared and open-plan offices (2011)

#24

Post by scbrg »

skj wrote: post #2

The title makes it seem (to me) like they're finding that open plan offices reduce sickness. But they're not reporting on the absence of sickness, but rather absence due to sickness, which they found occurred at a higher rate in open offices.

Where are you from? I'm guessing that how you interpret the title might depend on your native language/dialect.

Judging by the names of the authors, I'm guessing they're mostly Danish, or at least Scandinavian. As a native speaker of another Scandinavian language (Swedish), I understood the title as it was intended, but I'm not sure if the phrase "sickness absence" is the best way of expressing "absence due to sickness" to a native English speaker.

Re: Sickness absence associated with shared and open-plan offices (2011)

#25

Post by wyager »

sanxiyn wrote: post #15
nautilus12 wrote: post #6

Do they determine that people just take more sick days because they need some level of privacy while they work or because they are actually are getting sick more often? I would think its the former, tbh

Office design's impact on sick leave rates (2014) https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24460745 investigated this question. "Sick leaves were self-reported ... as number of short and long (medically certified) sick leaves... A significant excess risk for sickness absence was found only in terms of short sick leaves." Which supports your hypothesis.

Long sick leaves are usually for serious stuff that's non-transmissible, whereas short sick leave is usually for exactly the kind of stuff that's easier to transmit in an open office.

Re: Sickness absence associated with shared and open-plan offices (2011)

#27

Post by adrianN »

sanxiyn wrote: post #15
nautilus12 wrote: post #6

Do they determine that people just take more sick days because they need some level of privacy while they work or because they are actually are getting sick more often? I would think its the former, tbh

Office design's impact on sick leave rates (2014) https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24460745 investigated this question. "Sick leaves were self-reported ... as number of short and long (medically certified) sick leaves... A significant excess risk for sickness absence was found only in terms of short sick leaves." Which supports your hypothesis.

Most infections clear themselves up after a couple of days.

Re: Sickness absence associated with shared and open-plan offices (2011)

#28

Post by sanxiyn »

sidlls wrote: post #20
sanxiyn wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Office design's impact on sick leave rates (2014) https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24460745 investigated this question. "Sick leaves were self-reported ... as number of short and long (medically certified) sick leaves... A significant excess risk for sickness absence was found only in terms of short sick leaves." Which supports your hypothesis.

How does that support the hypothesis? One might conclude that the non-open plans mitigate the spread of short term sickness (e.g. colds) instead.

Support, not definite evidence. It could be that both short and long sick leaves are affected. Compared to that, it supports "not actually getting sick more often".

Re: Sickness absence associated with shared and open-plan offices (2011)

#30

Post by JustSomeNobody »

nils-m-holm wrote: post #5

Noise, permanent distraction, regular interruption, no privacy, and people spreading germs all over the place. No wonder that people get sick! I would rather be poor than work in a shared office one more time. (I have experienced both, so I know what I'm talking about.)

And higher stress levels from working in open offices.
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