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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)

#131

Post by masnick »

bretpiatt wrote: post #56

Too many variables to isolate on this study to provide proof that correlation equals causation. Even with the isolating they've tried to do with the 95% CI the range is: 1 Person Office: 1 (They didn't report a range here) 2 Person Office: 1.13-1.98 sick days 3-6 Person Office: 1.08-1.73 sick days (LOWER than 2) 6+ Person Office: 1.30-2.02 sick days Great item to study further. This isn't scientific proof of anything…

Note that they don’t report a confidence interval for the one-person office because it is the baseline for the other rate ratios. (This is generally how the baseline group is identified when reporting ratios in journal articles.)

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

#132

Post by mattrices »

d23 wrote: post #125
whoru007 wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Cover your sneeze. Cover your cough. Stay home when sick. These are kindergarten-level cultural learnings. A friend/colleague of mine is suffering from Chronic sinusitis and she usually sneezes every morning for around 20-30 times (random number, I know!) over period of few hours. The 'sneezing fit' is 100% of the time non-contagious yet loud and 'full with watery substance', She covers her sneezing most of the tim…

Be realistic. We're talking about the 99.9% of other people who don't have that condition.

The point is not all sneezes are due to colds. There are other causes that account for much more than .1%. Don't reinfoce societal pressure with biased probability analysis.

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

#134

Post by gcb0 »

in open floor offices you are elbow to elbow to somebody else all day long.

sick days are just a way to cope with that and get away from those people. especially with engineers. or take some time at home to do things online like buying tickets for a concert that you don't want to talk about in the office. its stressful to be watched every second. sick days and "have a cold, will work from home" are just a way to escape. doubt anyone was really sick.

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

#135

Post by tpudlik »

Please note that the study defines any office space shared by more than 6 people as "open plan". Also, although there's a (statistically) significant difference between 1 person offices and "open plan", there is no significant difference between 2 person offices and"open plan".

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

#136

Post by WalterSear »

ghaff wrote: post #112
rbadaro wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is very US specific. In Europe, in a lot of office-based work if you get sick you take some days off and it doesn't impact your normal yearly 20-30 day vacation allowance. If you need more than X days (in my case 5), you need a paper from your doctor, otherwise you self declare as sick. At my workplace, people tend to work from home if they are just feeling a bit sick.

It's mostly a fairly recent trend even in the US. For most of my career, I had separate vacation and sick days (as well as, possibly, personal/floating holidays). I'm not sure when the shift occurred but apparently a combined pool is pretty much the norm these days.

The new trend is 'unlimited' vacation days, where nothing can impact you vacation time, because you have to fight with your manager for it.

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

#137

Post by ams6110 »

mattrices wrote: post #133

This makes me wonder how many of those additional absences in open plan offices are due to depression / introverts recoiling in horror rather than increased biological pathogen transmission.

That was my thought. When I worked in large open "bullpen" office I certainly did "take a sick day" from time to time just because I could not stand the thought of spending 8 hours in that environment on that day. I was never actually sick any more often than normal during that time.

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

#138

Post by rdtsc »

tpudlik wrote: post #135

Please note that the study defines any office space shared by more than 6 people as "open plan". Also, although there's a (statistically) significant difference between 1 person offices and "open plan", there is no significant difference between 2 person offices and"open plan".

Not a bad metric. After about 4 people or so, it might as well be "open office". That is the chance of each one of those people being distracted by someone from outside the office, or a phone, or two of them talking about something is pretty high.

(Worked in a cubicle farm, 4 person office, 3 person office, 2 person, then my own office, now at home in my own office).

Top choice is work at home. Then own office. Then 2 person office. Once it gets to 3 person office, I'd pick a cubicle with high sound insulated walls.

Open office would be a nightmare for me. I'd get set just from stress of not being able concentrate and get my work done.

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

#139

Post by rdtsc »

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.)

I never worked in an open office (not for long, we had an open area) but worked in a 4 person office and agree with you. The stress of being constantly interrupted and not able to finish the work, can reasonably be assumed to lower the immune system and make people sick.

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

#140

Post by valuearb »

maccard wrote: post #114
damontal wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

2nd day in our new open office and I'm trying to work while 2 guys are having a catch with a football over my head.

Do you think if you shared a 3 person office with those 2 guys that problem would go away?

Pretty sure it would go away if they were in one person offices. And one person offices are cheap to provide.
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