Office designers are more responsible for spreading disease in workplaces than actual employees. That is the conclusion of a study performed by scientists from the Stockholm University. The study entitled Office Design's Impact on Sick Leave Rates published in the Ergonomics journal focused on both short-term and long-term sick leave rates of approximately two thousand employees in seven types of offices:
1) separate office
2) shared office (2-3 employees)
3) small open-plan office (4-9 employees)
4) medium open-plan office (10-24 employees)
5) large open-plan office (more than 24 employees)
6) "flex-office" (no individual workplaces)
7) "combi-office" (teamwork, less than 20% of employees have their own workplaces)
It turned out that open-plan offices are generally not good for the health of employees. That is not only caused by the spread of germs, but also due to the increased stress caused by noise and the lack of privacy. The increased risk of short-term sick leave, especially for women, was observed in all the three sizes of open-plan offices. "Flex-offices", in which employees have no permanently assigned workplaces, were significantly associated with mens' short-term and long-term sick leave.
The authors stated that the causes of sick leave among office employees is in the initial stages of scientific research. They pointed out the importance of further study because white-collar workers make up the majority of the workforce in the Western world. We know that sick-related absences are related to factors such as high work loads, lack of control over the performance of work, monotony of work, or even by employee gender. Further research, however, is necessary in regards to the impact of the physical office space. So far it seems that employees with the least number of sick-related absences work in separate and "combi" offices where more than 80% of employees have individual workplaces.
The complete study is available for download here.
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