Walking at Work
Thinking better, burning calories
Thinking better, burning calories
Getting to "Yes!"
Latini and associates probed how well brains function in biophilicly designed spaces, finding cognitive performance improves in biophilic environments. They report that “a new design approach for preliminary assessment of BD [biophilic design] intervention in VR is presented [in their paper]. . . . . [it compares] three office layouts (Indoor Green, Outdoor Green and Non-Biophilic) and three acoustic scenarios (Office, Office + Traffic and Office + Nature). . . . participants . . . . [completed] three cognitive tasks for each acoustic condition. . . .
"Saying" the right things
Performance, mental state repercussions
Bergefurt probes how mental health and workplace design are related. She found, for example, that “sound masking could significantly reduce speech intelligibility and improve short-term mental health outcomes (i.e., stress and mood). . . . biophilic design elements (e.g., plants, views outside, colour use) . . . contribute to positive psychological and cognitive responses to the workplace, that could eventually enhance mental health. . . .
DiRocco and colleagues used a survey to learn more about when people choose to stand or sit while working. The researchers share that “Adjustable height sit-stand desks are becoming the norm in many workplaces. . . . There were differences between actual and preferred behavior for each position, with participants sitting more and standing less than preferred across all task categories. There were differences between task categories with participants sitting less for generative and routine, and standing more for communication tasks. . . .
Recent attention to the benefits of having pets in workplaces is likely to increase interest in designing pet friendly workplaces. As Quan and Schabram report “Studies in diverse settings—traditional offices but also universities, prisons, hospitals and courthouses—demonstrate that the presence of animals increases employee commitment and career satisfaction and reduces turnover intentions. These positive effects hold even for employees who have no pets or do not actively interact with animals at work. Why?
Place, person matches and misses
Gracheva and Groen review the implications of onsite and external coworking sites for large office-based organizations. They share that they “examined the advantages and disadvantages of incorporating coworking environments into the real estate portfolios of large organizations. . . . The findings show that improved adaptability is the greatest advantage of external coworking solutions (facility management perspective). The most significant advantage of internal coworking is related to stimulation of innovation, creativity and knowledge sharing (general management perspective).