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posted by janrinok on Tuesday August 21 2018, @03:24PM   Printer-friendly
from the 'cos-the-boss-is-watching dept.

Submitted via IRC for chromas

Workers in open-plan offices are more active and less stressed than those with desks in cubicles or private offices, research suggests. This could be because they make the effort to find privacy to talk away from their desk, the researchers said. The US study used chest sensors to track movement and heart rate in hundreds of people in different buildings over three days.

The potential health benefits should not be ignored, they said.

But they said the study was observational only and factors like location of stairs and lifts could be at play too.

The University of Arizona study, published in Occupational & Environmental Medicine, claims to be the first to measure activity and stress in office workers, rather than asking them in a survey.

It said office workers tended to be a sedentary group compared to other workers, making them more likely to have health issues, including heart problems, tiredness and low mood.

Being less active during working hours has also been linked to greater feelings of stress. In the study of 231 office workers in government buildings in the US, those in open-plan offices - with no partitions between desks - clocked up 32% more physical activity than workers in private offices and 20% more than those in cubicles.

And those who were more active had 14% lower levels of stress outside the office compared to those who were less active.

Source: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-45247799


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  • (Score: 1) by Sulla on Tuesday August 21 2018, @04:30PM (3 children)

    by Sulla (5173) on Tuesday August 21 2018, @04:30PM (#724245) Journal

    Making my job more stressful would make my time not in the office less stressful.

    --
    Ceterum censeo Sinae esse delendam
  • (Score: 2) by Immerman on Tuesday August 21 2018, @04:46PM (1 child)

    by Immerman (3985) on Tuesday August 21 2018, @04:46PM (#724254)

    Unfortunately, that's not how stress works. Your time outside the office might seem less stressful in comparison to in the office, but it would still be more stressful than your time outside of the original less-stressful office.

    • (Score: 2, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 21 2018, @05:50PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 21 2018, @05:50PM (#724279)

      I think he meant the de-stressing time after the heart attack.

      Either way recovering in the hospital or "relaxing" in a pine box, its less stressful.

  • (Score: 2) by DannyB on Tuesday August 21 2018, @08:29PM

    by DannyB (5839) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday August 21 2018, @08:29PM (#724358) Journal

    Open Plan Office --> More Active

    What they actually mean is more active shooters.

    --
    People today are educated enough to repeat what they are taught but not to question what they are taught.