Many office-based workers do not realise that
environment they spend a majority of their working week in, may not be good for their health. Have you ever experienced headaches, respiratory infections, asthma or fatigue? Do these ailments occur at work? What happens when you go on holiday or at weekends, do they still occur or do they miraculously disappear?
You’ll often find people’s desk drawers contain a variety of pills and potions to alleviate ailments they experience at work.
John’s Story John commenced work in a large open plan office a few months ago. He had been promoted from Team Leader in another division to Manager of this new department. Since that time he has been continually unwell. He went on holiday for two weeks and all his ailments disappeared. A week later he returned to work and again he became sick. This of course greatly affected his productivity because when you feel unwell you don’t feel like doing much work…no matter how motivated you usually are.
Further investigation revealed that absenteeism in this department was high. People would often be away sick. John discovered whole office had not had a thorough clean in two years…the carpet needed steam cleaning, blinds had spider webs and thick dust, partitions which divided workstations had never been vacuumed.
John immediately organised for entire office to be cleaned from floor to ceiling. I also suggested that he contact local nursery to install plants in specific areas. Not only do plants make environment look good, they assist with air filtration.
When I spoke to John again, he said he was feeling much better… and so did many of his colleagues!
Robyn’s Story Robyn is Human Resources Manager in a computer company. She began experiencing bad asthma attacks since moving to her open plan area.
She discovered that office partitions had never been cleaned since their installation many years ago. The dust was exacerbating her condition. She has since had them thoroughly cleaned and her asthma has subsided!
Sally’s Story At an on-site workshop I ran for a telecommunications company, one of participants told us that her previous employer made a cost-cutting decision – to remove all plants from office. They had a contract with a plantscaping organisation and thought this would be an easy way to save money.
