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.

Comments

Nope

[Anonymous Coward]

The #1 office perk is getting a paycheck. Health insurance is a close second. Bathrooms will be up there above natural light as well.

Re:Nope

[vux984]

Paycheck isn't a perk its contractual. Health care, likewise is often considered to be part of the compensation package.

Bathrooms in the first world can generally be assumed to be mandated by law/building codes/ required for business licenses to be granted etc, and are ubiquitous enough that they can be assumed if you work in a building. If you don't work inside though, then bathrooms are often a challenge.

A *nice* bathroom might well be a valuable perk though.

FWIW, I agree with the article, my own home office windows overlook a greenspace -- to be able to just look out at trees gently waving in the breeze is something i truly value. It's a big part of why i chose the place.

Re:Nope

[Darinbob]

My cube is next to a window. It's by a parking lot, but sitting down all I see green tree leaves and blue sky and no cars or asphalt. This is more than I see at home to be honest. Also the lighting is a soft LED that is much nicer than flourescents. It was a big boost to mood going from a cubicle near the center of an aging building with crappy carpets to a refurbished building with sunlight.

Re:Nope

[Pseudonym]

That's not what "perk" (strictly speaking "perq", short for "perquisite") means.

Re:Nope

[Impy the Impiuos Imp]

The #1 office perk is getting a paycheck. Health insurance is a close second. Bathrooms will be up there above natural light as well.

Norm MacDonald: "This week in a new study, HR advisory firm Future Workplace announced the second most popular workplace perk was health insurance. The most popular? Whores!" (Stares at audience in silence.)

How long until his new show is on?

Light is important, yes...

[thegreatbob]

As is the ability to reduce the eye-searing blaze of overabundant fluorescent and LED fixtures that typically exceed the minimum legal requirements by a huge margin. When the average background field of the ceiling and walls is as bright as, or brighter than your monitor, it is very bothersome. This is obviously in the context of a circumstance where one's primary duties are on computers.

Re:Light is important, yes...

[PolygamousRanchKid]

As is the ability to reduce the eye-searing blaze of overabundant fluorescent and LED fixtures that typically exceed the minimum legal requirements by a huge margin.

The No. 1 Office Perk?

A Home Office.

It has the best lighting inside because you set it that way.

Or if the weather is nice, sit outside.

Re:Light is important, yes...

[Darinbob]

Naw, my cubicle is nicer than my home office. The cubicle has air conditioning and someone who vacuums every now and then.

Re:Light is important, yes...

[grahamtriggs]

Having a view really depends on how important distractions and refocusing are - sometimes it is really useful to be able to look away from your work; to think and reflect on it for a while.

Light - well, quality of light certainly matters. Making sure you light that is either neither too dull nor too bright, not having problematic reflections, glare, light sources in eyesight, etc.

Whether it is natural or artificial light is far less relevant to me. I don't hate natural light, but I find that it creates more problems - different levels of brightness during the day, different positions of the sun, etc. And how you control the natural environment - shutting or opening blinds, etc. - often leads to tensions amongst workers as people are affected differently given where they are located in the office.

disagree

[bananaquackmoo]

As a programmer and designer: Noooope! Light and reflections create monitor glare which in turn create headaches, color/contrast inaccuracies, and more trouble. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy daylight... when I'm outdoors or in a rest area. When I'm working, I'm working. Outdoors & daylight are distractions at that point.

Re:disagree

[Dutch Gun]

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.

Re:disagree

[aaarrrgggh]

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.

I can definitely vouch for this.

[Anonymous Coward]

I've had offices in:
1) A windowless room, but two doors away from standing at the coast. This was crappy even though the seawall was great to walk during breaks.
2) A full wall window on the 9th floor of a tower with a clear line of sight to the horizon. Rarely went outside the building, but I miss this every day. So do my plants.
3) A half wall window on the ground floor looking at the forest. This was somewhere in between - the light was nice, the view was OK, but I did go walk in the woods quite a bit.
4) A windowless room with some forest outside. This is kind of crappy, I don't like florescent lights.

By far the offices with more natural light were much better workspaces, and I would willingly (sometimes unthinkingly) spend much more time at work and being productive from them.

I prefer not having a window

[Kalendraf]

I've had a window office. I've also had a cube adjacent to a windowed wall where turning my head left let me look right outside. I've worked in labs with windows. However, I found I was always more productive in offices or rooms without windows. Invariably, I find having a window ends up being more of a distraction than a benefit.

What I prefer instead is being able to leave the site during lunch. That gives me plenty of time to get out, enjoy some fresh air and clear my head midway through the day. As a result, I rank flexible work hours and being able to pick when I arrive, and when I leave as a much higher than having a window. Vacations, sick days, personal days and so forth also rank much higher than having a window. And of course, getting paid and getting insurance tops all of those.

status symbol

[starless]

At the government lab where I work natural light is a status symbol.

The civil servants above a certain rank all get their own offices with windows, whereas "contractors",
of no matter what status and how many years of working at the lab., have shared windowless offices.

(Me, bitter? Maybe only slightly...)

Not just a perk, it's the law

[ruddk]

Now I know that I live in a socialist hell hole worse than Venezuela (According to Fox News). But it is actually the law that you can't build a office where people sit in more than two rows from a window.
https://arbejdstilsynet.dk/da/...

Google translated version: https://translate.google.com/t...

Re:Not just a perk, it's the law

[Mascot]

Same here, natural light and the ability to look outside are legal requirements. Ironically, I had blinds put in at work because I can't handle daylight without sunglasses.

Natural light? Nope.

[DarkVader]

Seriously, I don't give a f*ck about that.

An office with a door is FAR more important. I'm perfectly happy with no sunlight as long as I can close off everybody else when I'm trying to concentrate on something.

And no glass door or glass wall either. A solid door, with no windows in it or in the interior walls. I'm fine with a window to the outside, as long as it has curtains I can close if I want the glare to go away. And a lock on the door is an essential. Don't knock, don't call, just go away if my door is closed.

If I had to be in an open plan office all day I'd go insane.

(I'm so glad I work from home most of the time.)

No 1 should be

[Trogre]

No 1 should be an actual office.

Not some bullshit open-plan or cubicle hell dreamed up by a $500/hr consultant to foster collaboration and synergy of your brand.

Re:No 1 should be

[Trogre]

Forgive them, for they know not what they say.

An office. A small room with a door. Not a cubicle where your every conversation is broadcast to the rest of the room.

You've never seen one, have you?

Fresh air

[Trogre]

I suspect fresh air is more conducive to a happy healthy work environment than natural light.

Rickets and Crickets

[Tablizer]

I once worked in "the basement", and lack of natural light was indeed a common complaint among colleagues. (Cockroaches were another problem there.)

They joked about getting rickets from lack of outdoor light. Even seeing a sliver of sky seems to calm people.

Companies may be able to pay lower salaries if they focus on personal perks. For example, instead of a raise, they could optionally give you menu of things like:

* Better chair
* Bigger cubicle
* Better monitor(s)
* Cafeteria discounts
* Foosball table
* Nerf gun targets
* Better parking spot
* Bus/tram discounts
* Being closer to windows (or further from Windows)
* Better dev stack/language
* Permission to troll Slashdot
* Not getting yelled at when you screw up
* More attractive colleagues (yes, men are horny, deal)

Once I was given a window office. It was really nice, but created mass jealously, being I wasn't a manager. It wasn't worth the complicated office politics it created. Some people are really petty.

Denmark Offices ...

[kbahey]

Back in the mid 90s, I spend a month on business visit to Copenhagen.

All the offices had natural light. The building was a central corridor, with offices on the left and on the right of it, and all with big windows.

When I asked about that design, I was told that there is a law where no person should be farther than X meters away from a window, because their winter is long, and the days are short.

A far cry from the cubicle farms in the USA and Canada ...

Re: Health insurance is an USA only thing with jo

[datavirtue]

Yeah and that situation has to go.

I think it's more about not feeling trapped all da

[schematix]

Recently I worked many years in what was basically a construction trailer. It was much more glorious than it sounds though. I had my own 'office' with 3 windows and a door. Not to mention hundreds of dollars a week in snacks and Monster available at my whim. Parking was frequently less than 30' from the door. A good #2 bathroom was 1000' away, but that meant getting out and having forced exercise. Lunch was also free and always offsite. Point is that I got to be outdoors 10 times a day and that made it feel a lot more free.

Now i'm working in an office building where I have a view of planes landing and taking off at a major US airport. I am facing a 4th floor window all day and that makes things feel a little more open. But no outdoors.

Definitely beats my other desk though that's a cube on the interior of a building. You wouldn't know if Armageddon had started.

Re:I disagree with your disagreement

[cyberchondriac]

It's a "dog whistle". Emperor Trump is planning to execute Order 66 soon. ;)

Good lord I sound like Slate, someone shoot me.