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The No. 1 Office Perk? Natural Light, According To Hundreds of Employees (hbr.org)
An anonymous reader shares a report: The news headlines about what perks or elements of office design make for a great employee experience seem to be dominated by fads -- think treadmill desks, nap pods, and "bring your dog to work day" for starters. However, a new survey by my HR advisory firm Future Workplace called "The Employee Experience" reveals the reality is that employees crave something far more fundamental and essential to human needs. In a research poll of 1,614 North American employees, we found that access to natural light and views of the outdoors are the number one attribute of the workplace environment, outranking stalwarts like onsite cafeterias, fitness centers, and premium perks including on-site childcare (only 4-8% of FORTUNE 100 companies offer on-site child care). The study also found that the absence of natural light and outdoor views hurts the employee experience. Over a third of employees feel that they don't get enough natural light in their workspace. 47% of employees admit they feel tired or very tired from the absence of natural light or a window at their office, and 43% report feeling gloomy because of the lack of light.
Completely agree. Many game development environments I've worked in have been darkened, with windows mostly covered and overhead lights mostly off. Both programmers and artists alike seem to prefer a dim environment, where they can view their monitors all day without headache-inducing glare. It's especially important for artists to be able to see color and contrast properly, so their areas tend to be the darkest, in my recollection.
It would be nice to not have to work in a cave, but it's more practical, at least for me. I keep my home office somewhat dimly lit, with shades drawn and a single 30 watt bulb (equivalent) in a shaded lamp for illumination.
Irony: Agile development has too much intertia to be abandoned now.
You are unfortunately comparing bad lighting (and light) to good lighting and office orientation. My work is primarily either on my monitor or whiteboard behind my desk. I have about 5fc on my desk compared to a modern recommendation of 20-30fc, but I have fill-in lights to light up the wall in front of my desk to about 5% of the exitance from the monitor, along with a separate light that provides full-in on overcast days.
When an office is designed well, you have significantly less eye strain than a dark office. Natural light adds to it.
Unfortunately, designing good functional lighting for office spaces is a long lost art.