Sick days and leaving early

The occupational health researcher Morten Birkeland Nielsen matched survey answers about office type from 6,779 Norwegian office workers to the national register of disability benefits, so nobody had to report their own exit from working life. Fully adjusted for gender, skill level, work ability, prior certified sickness absence, leadership position and five personality traits, employees in shared offices faced a hazard ratio of 1.52 for subsequent disability retirement and those in open-plan offices 1.95, against cellular offices.

The occupational health researcher Jenni Ervasti linked the recorded sick leaves of 1,678 teachers to what pupils in 92 Finnish secondary schools said about the air, their satisfaction and bullying, in 2001 and again in 2004. Where the pupils called the air good at both points, teachers had an odds ratio of 0.6 for short sick leaves of one to three days, against schools where it was consistently poor. An improvement in the air gave the same 0.6. Worsening pupil satisfaction gave 1.8, more bullying 1.5. The building and the social climate showed up in the same register.

The construction researcher Amanjeet Singh followed two workforces through a move into certified green buildings, asking before and after. Work hours a month affected by asthma and respiratory allergies fell from 16.28 to 6.32. Hours affected by depression and stress fell from 20.21 to 14.06. The numbers answering fell too, from 46 to 33.

The building researcher Kwok Wai Tham surveyed 32 employees in a Platinum-certified building in Singapore and 33 in an uncertified one. In the uncertified building the commonest complaints were a dry or irritated throat and tiredness, both at 15.2%; in the certified one, four symptoms tied at 12.5. None of it reached significance, and the sick leave records did not show fewer days in the certified building. Tham names the likely reason and it is a good one: the uncertified building leaked so badly that its air change rate ran 2.5 to 3 times higher than the certified one’s.

A 2018 survey by Noble covered 83 autistic adults, 134 neurotypical controls and 59 people with other conditions affecting sensory processing. Autistic respondents reported more discomfort, more stress and less safety in both home and workplace, and the odds of avoiding buildings were 8.8 times the control group’s. Shops, supermarkets and medical buildings all scored worse for them, and these are buildings nobody can opt out of. The factors that separated the two groups most were people and the noise of people, then glare and electric light. Temperature mattered to both groups equally.

Nielsen’s 6,779 and Ervasti’s 1,678 are register-linked, which removes the self-report problem from the outcome. Singh asked 46 people before the move and 33 after. Tham surveyed 65 across two buildings. Noble ran an online survey.