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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)

#81

Post by chillydawg »

fizgig wrote: post #45
kross wrote: post #29

Root cause: bad sickness/time off/work from home policies.

I think this is a big part of it. I currently have 15 PTO days per year, which includes sick leave. If I'm feeling off, I'll ask if I can work from home, which I always get denied (which is odd, since I do after-hours maintenance and on-call incidents remotely). So rather than piss away PTO, I dose up on drugs and drag my ass to the office. If I had dedicated sick leave, I'd just take the day off. But this miserly PT…

Why on earth are sick days included in your paid time off? If you're sick, you're sick? I assume you're in the USA, given that barbaric policy?

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

#82

Post by pavel_lishin »

louprado wrote: post #79

PSA of the day: With practice you can learn to delay your sneeze by a second or two. That gives you time exhale all the air from your lungs so the sneeze has minimal power[1]. Tilt your head down too and with further practice you can learn to open your throat in order to minimize air velocity. [1] Source: me, a former obnoxiously loud sneezer that always dismissed it as an unavoidable and comical physiological quirk…

This is the first time it's occurred to me that other people cannot control their sneezes.

I've had the occasional "where the hell did that come from?" sneeze, but they're a rare exception, maybe a few times a year. I cannot fathom not being able to control something like a sneeze; to me, it would feel like not being able to control farting, coughing or talking.

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

#83

Post by brightfog »

gourou wrote: post #78
brightfog wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes and no. You can build great working relationships in the office but also remotely. You can have really bad conflicts in the office but also remotely. I think the difference is that once you got attached to some people from your work that the motivation to see and talk to them is one key driver to work for the company every day. This attachemnt might develop faster in an office environment.

Nothings beats a white board for explaining something

Yes true but a missing whiteboard often leads to well executed specs and mockups.

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

#84

Post by logfromblammo »

louprado wrote: post #79

PSA of the day: With practice you can learn to delay your sneeze by a second or two. That gives you time exhale all the air from your lungs so the sneeze has minimal power[1]. Tilt your head down too and with further practice you can learn to open your throat in order to minimize air velocity. [1] Source: me, a former obnoxiously loud sneezer that always dismissed it as an unavoidable and comical physiological quirk…

I can sneeze without exhaling at all.

Of course, I am afraid of what this does to my blood pressure, and whenever I do it, I start thinking that one day I'm going to burst a blood vessel while sneezing like that.

Comes in handy if you have a photic sneeze reflex, though.

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

#85

Post by tcfunk »

louprado wrote: post #79

PSA of the day: With practice you can learn to delay your sneeze by a second or two. That gives you time exhale all the air from your lungs so the sneeze has minimal power[1]. Tilt your head down too and with further practice you can learn to open your throat in order to minimize air velocity. [1] Source: me, a former obnoxiously loud sneezer that always dismissed it as an unavoidable and comical physiological quirk…

Expecting that people should control their sneezes is a ridiculous cultural norm.

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

#87

Post by pavel_lishin »

aedron wrote: post #75
brightfog wrote: post #41

I don't think it's about open-offices or not: Work environments just don't reflect work anymore. There isn't any rational reason for knowledge workers to go to an office every day. Socializing and building a cult around a company might be the only reasons. But IDK if these are enough to justify an office. There must be another solution we aren't aware of yet.

No remote working solution comes close to in-person collaboration, in my opinion. I can explain someone something in probably less than half the time in person than over some electronic link-up. I'm not sure what it is (lack of body language? Lack of shared physical presence and tools?) or if it can be remedied by better technical solutions (it's possible), but it's the reality right now.

I agree completely. Maybe the tools we're using at my current job are just shitty, or maybe we as a team aren't very good at communicating, or maybe a combination of all three things - but I definitely feel like we accomplish more when we're physically present on most days.

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

#88

Post by falsedan »

pavel_lishin wrote: post #82
louprado wrote: post #79

PSA of the day: With practice you can learn to delay your sneeze by a second or two. That gives you time exhale all the air from your lungs so the sneeze has minimal power[1]. Tilt your head down too and with further practice you can learn to open your throat in order to minimize air velocity. [1] Source: me, a former obnoxiously loud sneezer that always dismissed it as an unavoidable and comical physiological quirk…

This is the first time it's occurred to me that other people cannot control their sneezes. I've had the occasional "where the hell did that come from?" sneeze, but they're a rare exception, maybe a few times a year. I cannot fathom not being able to control something like a sneeze; to me, it would feel like not being able to control farting, coughing or talking.

> like not being able to control farting, coughing or talking

Did you know? Plenty of people cannot control these actions 100%. Please don't assume others are like you.

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

#89

Post by pavel_lishin »

fizgig wrote: post #45
kross wrote: post #29

Root cause: bad sickness/time off/work from home policies.

I think this is a big part of it. I currently have 15 PTO days per year, which includes sick leave. If I'm feeling off, I'll ask if I can work from home, which I always get denied (which is odd, since I do after-hours maintenance and on-call incidents remotely). So rather than piss away PTO, I dose up on drugs and drag my ass to the office. If I had dedicated sick leave, I'd just take the day off. But this miserly PT…

Perhaps the next time you get sick, you should avoid the cough suppressants and decongestants, and have a few excuses to stop by the boss's office, and the HR offices, just to chat and incidentally spray infections fluids everywhere.

"Sorry, I'm out of sick days - but as long as I'm here, let's have that lengthy meeting about X. Here, I even brought you a cup of coffee!"

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

#90

Post by dkersten »

edw519 wrote: post #54

I call B.S. 1. "associated" means nothing. "Anything" can be "associated" with "anything else". "significantly related" is almost as worthless. Correlation is better than association. Causation is better than correlation. Where's any of that? This is just a hypothesis, not a conclusion. 2. I've been working in corporate offices for 38 years in every possible environment imaginable: private office, war room, open offi…

> stress from work,

Open offices cause me significant amounts of stress (for varous reasons), so... does that means that open offices are in your list, under the “stress from work” category?

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