ABSTRACT
This chapter offers an insight into factors that are common causes of complaint amongst the workforce. Ergonomists and human factors consultants are typically concerned with the impact of three main factors in an office environment: noise, lighting, and thermal comfort. This chapter offers some general comment on the three environmental factors, as well as some advice on how to create a suitable office for people to work in comfortably. It is aimed at traditional office buildings that have environments that are unlikely to change from day to day or hour to hour, as might occur when using mobile devices on the move. The chapter discusses open plan offices, as well as activity-based offices, and explores whether the focus should be on the acoustic design of open-plan offices, rather than change the concept of how the office functions. It deals with the belief that compared to enclosed individual offices, the open-plan environment produces reduced satisfaction and performance. It weighs up whether attempts to reduce noise in an environment may exacerbate the problem rather than alleviate it, because in quieter offices, noise is more discernible or ‘noticeable’ and the inhabitants less tolerant of it because it is more distinctive. In terms of lighting, the chapter deals with natural light, artificial light, and glare. The topic of colour is considered in terms of its impact on the employees in the environment. In the section on thermal comfort, the chapter deals with draughts, temperature, and the influence of clothing.
