The effects of moderate heat stress and open-plan office noise distraction on SBS symptoms and on the performance of office work

Witterseh, Thomas; Wyon, David Peter; Clausen, Geo

doi:10.1111/j.1600-0668.2004.00305.x

Cited by 190 publications

(160 citation statements)

References 25 publications

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“…Although in a study by Havenith in 2005, females had generally higher core temperatures, skin temperature, heart rates, blood pressure, and set points for sweating, in comparison to males 57) . Moreover, Witterseh et al, 2004, found that the effects of heat stress on performance seem to be more adverse for males than for females 58) and Kenney et al, 2007 found that females show a greater increase in the core temperature onset threshold for sweating in both moderate and intense exercise (Fig. 3) 59) .…”

Section: Individual Aspectsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of Heat Stress on Working Populations when Facing Climate Change

et al. 2013

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It is accepted that the earth's climate is changing in an accelerating pace, with already documented implications for human health and the environment. This literature review provides an overview of existing research findings about the effects of heat stress on the working population in relation to climate change. In the light of climate change adaptation, the purpose of the literature review was to explore recent and previous research into the impacts of heat stress on humans in an occupational setting. Heat stress in the workplace has been researched extensively in the past however, in the contemporary context of climate change, information is lacking on its extent and implications. The main factors found to exacerbate heat stress in the current and future workplace are the urban 'heat island effect', physical work, individual differences, and the developing country context where technological fixes are often not applicable. There is also a lack of information on the effects on vulnerable groups such as elderly people and pregnant women. As increasing temperatures reduce work productivity, world economic productivity could be condensed, affecting developing countries in the tropical climate zone disproportionately. Future research is needed taking an interdisciplinary approach, including social, economic, environmental and technical aspects.

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Section: Individual Aspectsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of Heat Stress on Working Populations when Facing Climate Change

et al. 2013

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“…Residents who trade off acoustic comfort for thermal comfort conditions are likely to be more dissatisfied with noise given the evidence that people do not adapt to noise disturbance over time (Witterseh et al, 2004).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Assessing occupant comfort in an iconic sustainable education building

Best

Purdey

2012

CEB

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The building that houses the Mirvac School of Sustainable Development at Bond University is the first educational building to achieve a six Green Star rating from the Green Building Council of Australia. It has won numerous awards since opening in August 2008 including being judged the RICS (Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors) Sustainable Building of 2009. After more than two years in use a post-occupancy evaluation study was carried out to assess the performance of the building from the viewpoint of the users; both resident staff and transient students. Results for factors such as lighting, thermal comfort, noise and air quality were compared to benchmarks established by the Usable Buildings Trust. The evaluation also assessed the occupants' perceptions of the building's impact on their own productivity. Users generally find the building provides a comfortable work environment although a number of areas of performance were noted as posing some concerns. These included intrusive noise in some parts of the building and some issues with glare in daylit teaching spaces. Such concerns were found to be in accord with the results of previous studies and they highlight some recurrent problems in "green" buildings designed to maximise the use of natural ventilation and natural light. These design challenges and how occupant satisfaction is to be measured and benchmarked are also discussed in the context of this comparative building study.

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“…Many studies have found a positive association between decreased speech and visual privacy and increased cognitive workload [13,14,20,21]. This increased cognitive workload, in turn decreases worker performance.…”

Section: Architectural Enclosure and Worker Performancementioning

confidence: 99%

Architectural enclosure's effect on office worker performance: A comparison of the physical and symbolic attributes of workspace dividers

Goins

Jellema

Zhang

2010

Building and Environment

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Most studies of offices examine their physical or symbolic attributes independently. Yet office components can contain both attributes. To minimize unintended but potentially negative effects on occupants, researchers must consider both the physical and symbolic attributes of components when making recommendations about their deployment. This study compares the effects of the physical and symbolic attributes of architectural enclosure on worker performance using a survey database that contains workers' ratings of their office components. The amount of enclosure is determined by the height of the occupant's workspace divider, with taller dividers offering more enclosure. Divider height is positively associated with ratings of the two physical attributes considered: speech privacy and visual privacy. Divider height, however, does not affect occupants' ratings of a home-like atmosphere or workplace pride, the symbolic attributes considered. Yet, the occupants indicate that the two symbolic attributes are more important than the two physical attributes in improving their work performance. This might lead to office design choices. An office designed to maximize worker performance might do so by maximizing its symbolic impact. This analysis suggests that an office's symbolic impact may not always be increased by including more offices with tall dividers like enclosed, private offices.

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The effects of moderate heat stress and open-plan office noise distraction on SBS symptoms and on the performance of office work

Cited by 190 publications

References 25 publications

Effects of Heat Stress on Working Populations when Facing Climate Change

Effects of Heat Stress on Working Populations when Facing Climate Change

Assessing occupant comfort in an iconic sustainable education building

Architectural enclosure's effect on office worker performance: A comparison of the physical and symbolic attributes of workspace dividers

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