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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)

#151

Post by debaserab2 »

MSM wrote: post #142
mattrices wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

>Don't reinfoce societal pressure with biased probability analysis. They aren't saying don't sneeze, they're saying cover your sneeze. It doesn't matter why you are sneezing, covering it is the standard.

Agreed, but I think what is ridiculous is training your lungs to minimize the effectiveness of your sneeze. That is absolutely ridiculous: your body is sneezing for a reason, let it do its thing (and cover it).

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

#152

Post by SCHiM »

logfromblammo wrote: post #91
zebraflask wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This fits with my experience. My department has some cubicle farms and some shared but much more private office suites. The cube farm people are always getting sick. Somebody comes in with a cough and promptly spreads it. It then can take weeks before there's a week without somebody sick. Getting people to stay home when they are sick has been harder to implement than you'd think. I've tried with my work team. A numb…

Ever since companies ditched vacation and sick leave in favor of combined PTO, I work while sick. When I had sick leave, I used it. It may well be that they don't want to cut their July vacation short by a day because they caught a cold in January. And to compound the issue, it was probably a cold they caught at work, because the company leave policy reinforces the behavior. People who stay home when sick are punishe…

Here in the Netherlands you can get back your vacation days if you get sick during your vacation. Might not earn as much in the US, but some benefits...

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

#153

Post by michaelmrose »

tcfunk wrote: post #85
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.

What culture are you thinking of?

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

#154

Post by Broken_Hippo »

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.

Where do you get your numbers from? Allergies are a pretty common thing. And the symptoms mimic a cold. Numbers seem to differ, but I'm getting anything from 10% to 30% of adults. [1] I'm pretty sure that makes your numbers bad.

And want folks to stay home? How the heck are they supposed to afford it when they can be contagious for 2 weeks? Heck, folks are contagious before their symptoms even start. How can one allow for that? [2] Most jobs aren't going to allow for that sort of time off, nor are schools. Most that do will require a doctor's note - and it hardly seems reasonable to go to a doctor for a simple cold virus.

[1] http://www.aaaai.org/about-aaaai/newsroom/allergy-statistics [2] https://www.healthline.com/health/cold-flu/contagious#overvi...

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

#155

Post by oh_sigh »

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…

Just sneeze into the crook of your arm. It stops the spray and muffles the noise.

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

#156

Post by gumby »

protonfish wrote: post #103
tcfunk wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

And what about saying "bless you?" People sure have superstitious hangups about sneezing. And I don't mind, it doesn't hurt anything, until I get a sarcastic "you're welcome" from people for not thanking them for blessing me. I seriously don't get that. When did saying "bless you" require an official display of gratitude? I didn't ask for anything and would just like to sneeze in peace, please.

Thank the sneezer instead. If they wonder why you thanked them you can thank them for the aerosol of bacteria and crud they sent your way.

In east Asia it's customary for sick people to wear masks to avoid spreading disease via coughing or sneezing. A practice that ought to be adopted everywhere.

I know I'm promoting a passive-aggressive strategy which is also social corrosive, but it's a way of spreading (!) the meme. And don't say "Gesundheit" because you think "bless you" is religious -- saying Gesundheit is simply non-denominationally superstitious.

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

#157

Post by jackmott »

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.

way more people that that have allergies

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

#158

Post by Djvacto »

debaserab2 wrote: post #151
MSM wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Don't reinfoce societal pressure with biased probability analysis. They aren't saying don't sneeze, they're saying cover your sneeze. It doesn't matter why you are sneezing, covering it is the standard.

Agreed, but I think what is ridiculous is training your lungs to minimize the effectiveness of your sneeze. That is absolutely ridiculous: your body is sneezing for a reason, let it do its thing (and cover it).

I think his tips were meant as an option. To be quite honest I'll be trying some of these, because it's not a huge amount of effort at all.

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

#159

Post by dragonwriter »

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…

Assuming social conflict as well as physical health is a driver, the local peak at 2 makes perfect sense.

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

#160

Post by jpindar »

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.

One of these things is not like the others. People should be able to control talking (assuming they know it bothers the people around them).
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