Nice office environment
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How the office environment affects your day

3 Feb 2017

How much does your office environment affect how much work you do in a day? Quite a lot, actually.

Did you know that everything from lighting to colours that surround you can affect your productivity in work?

How much natural lighting do you have in your office? Are you too hot or too cold at any point in the day? What colour are your office walls? How comfortable is your chair?

Here’s how your office environment affects your work, your level of productivity and even your mood.

Lighting

A study showed that while bright lights can make workers more alert, dim lights can spark more creativity and bring about a more explorative thinking process.

As a more general rule, natural light has been proven to improve workers’ mood and health, which in turn will make them more productive.

Temperature

Due to a number of differences between workers, the temperature will probably not satisfy everyone. There’s always that one person that is too cold while someone else is sitting by the window in short sleeves.

However, while there is a legal limit for how cold your office can be (17.5 degrees Celsius), extremely warm temperatures can lead to a lack of productivity too.

A study from Helsinki University showed that 22 degrees Celsius is the optimum temperature for maximum productivity.

Décor

The office décor may not seem like something that will make you work harder, but even the colours of the walls could affect your mood and how hard you work.

Studies have shown that blue and green colours improve efficiency and focus, particularly in a creative environment, while red is a particularly active and intense colour that can increase heart rate – perfect for a job that requires physical activity.

While you may not be able to take a paintbrush to your office walls, you can certainly add a plant to your desk. A study showed that plants in the office can increase your productivity by 15pc.

In a survey of 1,000 Americans carried out by Pots, Planters & More, a third of employees say there are no plants in their workplace.

The infographic below shows more results relating to the effects of office environment and décor on employees.

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Jenny Darmody
By Jenny Darmody

Jenny Darmody became the editor of Silicon Republic in 2023, having worked as the deputy editor since February 2020. When she’s not writing about the science and tech industry, she’s writing short stories and attempting novels. She continuously buys more books than she can read in a lifetime and pretty stationery is her kryptonite. She also believes seagulls to be the root of all evil and her baking is the stuff of legends.

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