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Warm Offices Boost Productivity

Posted by michael on from the turn-down-the-frigging-air-conditioning dept.

bluelip writes "It looks like the real reason for offshoring is corporations looking for warmer weather. Instead of paying the energy bills to crank up the heat in the office to a more productive temperature, the offices are moving to warmer areas. This article shows a 44% error reduction and 150% increase in productivity for those working in warmer offices. Will this increase in output be enough to convince my boss to pay for us to vacation-commute from a tropical island?"

9 of 520 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Warm??? by gclef · · Score: 5, Funny

    Add another problem: warmer temps mean lighter/less female clothing. The effects of this on male productivity should be obvious.

  2. This is old news by sckienle · · Score: 5, Informative

    From Article: When the office temperature in a month-long study increased from 68 to 77 degrees Fahrenheit, typing errors fell by 44 percent and typing output jumped 150 percent.

    This is a well-known phenomenon, first seen in the Hawthorne studies. One of the first productivity studies was in a factory where the researcher first reduced the light, and productivity increased; then the researcher increased the light, and productivity still increased. The end result is that worker productivity increased indirectly merely by changing the work environment.

    Maybe that's why we keep getting reorganized....

    --
    I don't see things in black and white; I see the gray. Heck, I actually see in color, which makes things more difficult
    1. Re:This is old news by suwain_2 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      productivity increased indirectly merely by changing the work environment.

      I was actually wondering if anyone else had mentioned this, sometimes called the Hawthorne Effect. However, it seems you have the summarization a little wrong.

      It's generally believed that productivity didn't increase because their environment was changing; productivity went up because they knew they were being studied, and/or that management cared about them enough to look. Remember that the Hawthorne study was one of the forerunners in the wild new theory that increasing productivity might have something to do with employees, not machinery.

      It's not entirely unlike the placebo effect, although I'd stop short of equating the two.

      --
      ________________________________________________
      suwain_2 :: quality slashdot p
  3. Warm Office=Faster Typing by ThurstonMoore · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I work in an office that gets very cold during the fall and winter and I have noticed that my typing speed decreases dramatically when my hands are cold.

  4. Re:Too warm? by tambo · · Score: 5, Insightful
    For programming, at 25 my brain slows down to zero and I keep on losing track of what I'm doing, and end up spending all my time browsing the web.

    25 degrees C is uncomfortably warm if you're wearing a shirt and tie, or full battle gear (suit), as is typical of my law firm and many other professional groups.

    But 25 degrees C is damn perfect if you're wearing comfortable clothing, like shorts, a T-shirt, and flip-flops. By no coincidence, I'm most productive when I'm comfortable, which includes how I'm dressed.

    I hope that this starts a trend back to more casual dress. We were headed there in 1999, but the shock waves of the .com bust produced a backlash to heavy, formal clothing. Hopefully we can resurrect the previous trend.

    - David Stein

    --
    Computer over. Virus = very yes.
  5. Warmer offices is politically correct term for... by FerretFrottage · · Score: 5, Funny

    sweatshops...hence the productivity increase.

    --
    "Look Lois, the two symbols of the Republican Party: an elephant, and a fat white guy who is threatened by change."
  6. Snooze by Hoi+Polloi · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I had an astrophysics prof in college from India who said in class, I kid you not, "It is very warm in here. It puts you to sleep. Maybe that is why the cooler northern countries have been historically more advanced industrially." Dunno if there is any truth to that but it certainly woke me up.

    --
    It is by the juice of the coffee bean that thoughts acquire speed, the teeth acquire stains. The stains become a warning
  7. Re:Warm??? by strictfoo · · Score: 5, Informative

    Women, on average, have a slower metabolism than men. This is due to them having a higher, on average, percentage of body fat (due to the natural features that women have). Thus, women produce less heat than men, on average, and like their environment to be slightly warmer.

    There is nothing wrong with pointing out the phyiscal differences between sexes.

    I have never worked at a company where there was an issue with men turning the heat up, which causes discomfort for others, just because they were a little too cold.

    --
    I've just signed legislation that'll outlaw Russia forever. We'll begin bombing in five minutes.
  8. Re:Too warm? by david.given · · Score: 5, Funny
    And it will convert almost everything as well.

    > CONVERT LEAD INTO GOLD

    Definition of convert - WordReference.com Dictionary...

    Darn. And I thought Google could do everything.