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The #1 Office Perk? Natural Light

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Re: The #1 Office Perk? Natural Light

#341

Post by s73v3r_ »

mlthoughts2018 wrote: post #329
s73v3r_ wrote: post #252

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Then I’m just the whiny asshole or primadonna or something." The way you approach doing this goes a long, long way toward how you're perceived. "It’s not possible to have these preferences treated in an adult way in modern corporations, and anyone the issue got escalated to will just see it as whining." I imagine you think this is the case because you see others asking for similar types of things as also being "whin…

Why do you think I perceive other askers as whiny? I don’t. I think corporate culture is sorely anti-humane, and we need better sociological solutions in dev teams and orgs, closer to what is described in Peopleware. I take other peoples’ preferences very seriously and treat them with respect. People should at least be heard and compromises attempted. Management and capricious brogrammer types in every company I’ve e…

That has not been the case in any of the jobs I've worked at over my career. You work in shitty companies.

Re: The #1 Office Perk? Natural Light

#342

Post by mlthoughts2018 »

s73v3r_ wrote: post #341
mlthoughts2018 wrote: post #329

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why do you think I perceive other askers as whiny? I don’t. I think corporate culture is sorely anti-humane, and we need better sociological solutions in dev teams and orgs, closer to what is described in Peopleware. I take other peoples’ preferences very seriously and treat them with respect. People should at least be heard and compromises attempted. Management and capricious brogrammer types in every company I’ve e…

That has not been the case in any of the jobs I've worked at over my career. You work in shitty companies.

It has been the case in all the companies I’ve heard about from peers as well, which includes several of the “big four” tech companies, prominent startups, finance companies, etc.

It sounds like your working experience has been wildly unrepresentative of the reality of modern corporations.

Re: The #1 Office Perk? Natural Light

#343

Post by leesec »

SpikeDad wrote: post #340
leesec wrote: post #338

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It was actually my doctor who recommended this after a blood test showing I had a Vitamin D deficiency, and initially I was taking 15000 IU for a short period. I have been doing this for at least 6 months now with no ill affects, and many positives ones ( better mood, better sleep, better energy, etc...)

Do any testing of your Vit D blood levels after taking increasingly large doses? Seems like once you hit the normal levels in your blood taking more is a waste of money?

I haven't had blood work done recently tho I do notice the difference if I'm away or forget and don't take the supplements regularly.

Cost isn't really an issue, I pay 15 dollars on Amazon for 360 5000 IU softgels.

Should note that I work in a windowless office room and almost definitely get less sunlight then the average person.

Re: The #1 Office Perk? Natural Light

#344

Post by quartus »

leesec wrote: post #258
jdavis703 wrote: post #254

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If I don't get enough sun I fall in to depression. It's why I moved to California -- every winter I'd get really down; I'd self diagnosed as having seasonal affective disorder. Since being in California for five winters this hasn't happened yet. I also spent a summer working in a windowless office while my company was preparing for a classified DoD project (we lost the bid, but one of the requirements was "no windows…

You're probably well aware of this, but Vitamin D supplements have been life changing for me. There was an article a while back pleading to the FDA to fix the recommended daily limit, suggesting it might be 10x too low. I take 10,000 IU a day and the difference is very noticeable.

For a healthy dose of skepticism, check out the New York Times article "Vitamin D, the Sunshine Supplement, Has Shadowy Money Behind It". It points out, among other things, that a 2010 National Academy of Medicine (then known as the Institute of Medicine) report found that most Americans get enough vitamin D, and that "the evidence supports a role for vitamin D and calcium in bone health but not in other health conditions" http://www.nationalacademies.org/hmd/Reports/2010/Dietary-Re... https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/18/business/vitamin-d-michae...

On a related note about sunshine, Sam Altman recommends a full spectrum LED light in the morning as his most beneficial productivity booster. http://blog.samaltman.com/productivity

Re: The #1 Office Perk? Natural Light

#345

Post by tlavoie »

ChrisClark wrote: post #274
PascLeRasc wrote: post #263

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I get pretty significant SAD and 5000 IUs of Vitamin D helps a lot, but it's not enough for me. I'm planning to move to somewhere else in a year or two, maybe Seattle.

Vancouver Island isn't far from Seattle, and I had no sun at all all winter, be sure to check it out in the winter before you move there.

It might not be that sunny in the winter, but it'll be warm enough that you're not completely bundled up away from the sunlight you do get if it's not actually raining.

Winnipeg might be much sunnier in the winter, but I'm not sure you'd get much more sun exposure given things like wind chill.

BTW, where on VI are you? Quadra here.

Re: The #1 Office Perk? Natural Light

#346

Post by forapurpose »

I very much prefer natural light to artificial light. I've wondered, regarding lighting windowless areas:

Why don't buildings put natural light collectors ("windows") on exterior surfaces, and use light redirectors ("mirrors" and maybe "fiber") to shunt the light to places that otherwise lack it. The light could be output through the same fixtures that host artificial light sources. (Sensors and dimmers on artificial light sources could compensate for variations in natural light.)

It would be much more pleasant than artificial light and it would save energy. Perhaps the ROI isn't high enough.

Re: The #1 Office Perk? Natural Light

#347

Post by tropo »

kaybe wrote: post #62
matwood wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm sure there are exceptions. What if the worker is in an office handling German classified materials all day?

The satellite control rooms do indeed not have natural light. But all the people working there have another office with natural light they can use when their presence is not required in the control room (which is most of the time).

OK then, how about the navy? Germany has 6 submarines.

Re: The #1 Office Perk? Natural Light

#348

Post by Tor3 »

dang wrote: post #251
Tor3 wrote: post #7

In some civilized countries natural light is actually a requirement, by law. Not in the server closet etc, but in your office it is. You can, of course, adjust the curtains or whatever to get the exact amount you prefer (which typically changes throughout the day, as the sun passes)

> civilized No nationalistic swipes on HN, please. Your comment would be fine without that bit. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

Apologies. It wasn't meant that way, and I would edit it if I could (but I was too late).
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