Adjusting Your Work Environment to Work for You? 59
Darvin Pope asks: "I have a rather disconcerting problem at work: the environment is uncomfortable. Its not your standard, 'I hate my job' type of uncomfortable, its more of a general physical and mental issue than that. The entire place is done in earthtones, its dark and it can be noisy. My cube is situated across the room from most others, but still, its hard to acquire a peaceful, zenlike state of mind, neccesary for me to write my best code, with all the disturbances around. I was wondering if any of the slashdot folks had any hints - ranging from a change of seating posture to color schemes, desk clutter, music/white noise, herbal suppliments, dietary changes, lighting, and so on. What works best for the rest of you?"
Simple Solution (Score:2, Funny)
Do some system administration (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Do some system administration (Score:3, Informative)
For those who would like this garb, but are too afraid to ask how to make one, just check here [zapatopi.net]. (I just love step 7)
My suggestions: (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:My suggestions: (Score:2, Interesting)
At my highschool I have a teacher who plays classical stuff while we take tests or do classwork. She says that studies show your work improves if you listen to classical music, preferably something with strings, at around 60bpm. For all you non-musicians that means slow violin music. I personally like Bach chorales (my mind just went blank on how to spell that..) because they're so beautiful. Ask a friend if you don't know anything about classical music for suggestions.
Re:My suggestions: (Score:1)
Or is it that music helps memory?
Any links to papers?
--Tom Y
Re:My suggestions: (Score:1)
i personally couldn't code crap while listening to classic music, or anything slow (i do enjoy listening to classic music, but just not while coding)
reason for this, is to code i need to be hyper. caffeine helps, but so does some heavy riffs or fast pumpin goa
but your best bet is to bring a dozen different cds, and listen to em
Re:My suggestions: (Score:1)
Whats the difference?
Re:My suggestions: (Score:2)
Not music! (Score:2)
The "creative" part of your brain is also the part that listens to music. Therefore you can't effectively do both at the same time. (I suspect that heavy stuff like Beethoven is especially bad, in fact.)
Of course, you don't need to be creative most of the time. Once you've worked out a design, coding (should be) easy...
Re:Not music! (Score:2)
Create a true cube. (Score:1)
Herbal supplement (Score:4, Funny)
(But remember, drugs are bad! bad!)
Re:Herbal supplement (Score:1)
It also increases your creativity so you sometimes come up with really elegant solutions for problems that you wouldn't have seen otherwise. But, as always, YMMV.
Re:Herbal supplement (Score:1)
unlike most mis-named drugs tobacco is a narcotic whereas marijuana is a stimulant
joints are bad for concentration
I find a nice fat bong at 9am helps me block out the shitty world i leave behind
You are master of your own destiny (Score:2)
- Posters to improve the "view"
- Lamps to change the lighting (if it is too dark or un-natural/natural)
- If you find your cubicle is designed to expose you to the view of the casual passer by then change the design of it by getting more partitions, or moving them around.
- Plants for your desk can give a refreshing feel to your cubicle.
- I've also found that play with the height and angle of your monitor can improve the vibe of your cubicle.
- Finally remeber the Hawthorne effect. I'm not sure if it applies if you make the changes yourself, but changes of any kind, if you percieve them as being in the interests of improved productivity WILL improve productivity.
Job environments. (Score:4, Informative)
The first and foremost important piece of your work environment is your chair. Make sure it's something you can be comfortable in for hours at a time, especially when coding. Get your feet off the floor and onto something. I personally use a high back leather chair and matching footstool. Medically, having your feet dangling or poorly supported for long periods of time is bad for you. Make sure you can lean back in your chair, and you're not working hunched over.
Match your chair to your desk, with regard to height. Find a working position between the two that's comfortable, or work out a way to get your keyboard lower. Ergonomics, while froofy, aren't a joke.
Noise suppression. If you're a coder, get some good noise cancellation going. Background noise reduction cuts down on a lot of distractions. Even if you're not pumping music into it, having your ears covered will quickly become a sign to people that you're busy. Train the mammals to send email instead of pop into your cube. I personally use Sony's noise reduction earbuds, which by shape alone are a functional earplug.
Lighting is important. I've had several cases of janitor combat by disengaging overhead flourescents in favor of a gentle incandescent lamp. Don't work in the dark, though. Hormonally, humans (and other diurnal creatures (this excludes Solaris admins)) are stimulated into various modes by light levels. One argument you'll be presented with should you decide to tamper with overheads is 'Safety Reasons'. Don't let this slide. It's YOUR work environment. Ground level strip lighting is just as effective, and less intrusive. Use indirect lighting where possible.
If you're in a heavy corporate environment, it's entirely plausible that certain management types will immediately single you out as a deviant, so use caution.
Some ammunition:
Oklahoma State Doc on Ergonomics and Environments [okstate.edu]: This is a good common sense doc about computer heavy work environments. You can draft a simple checklist based on the contents to see how your work environs stack up.
This document points out something important: OSHA does NOT have a standing (read: enforcable) ruling or standard for computer operation environments. Your employer can simply tell you to take a hike and get away with it. In some cases, I'd say take this up with HR, or rally your like minded coworkers, but given that most corporate HR teams simply don't give a damn, caveat emptor.
In the event your management doesn't go for it, here's a piece on combatting violence in the office [lhh.com].
In any case, do some homework before embarking on this quest. If nothing else, present it in simple financial terms. Personally controlled light environments tend to be less expensive to maintain than mass overhead lighting. No ladders required, less maintenance impact. Lights turned off when cubes are vacated at beer o' clock serve as pro-active energy management.
Single user monitor lamps, like these from Think Geek [thinkgeek.com] ($29.99 each) work very well. They did their homework [thinkgeek.com] about lighting advantages, as well. This brings cubespace lighting down from the ceiling and into the cube.
The drawback to this, and one of the first things managers (and site security) like to point out, is the reduced light level for the rest of the office. It's a perfectly valid argument, and generally brings lighting wars to a screaming halt. This can be replied to with something simple and inexpensive, like these Mini Lights [espenergy.com], which would sit well on the exterior of any cube wall, illuminating the aisle.
As for general office lighting a few well placed torchiere style lamps (check your lamp types, though. Some suck more power than others) provide excellent indirect lighting.
Re:Job environments. (Score:2)
Waittaminute
The two BIGgest factors I've noticed in work environment comfort are 1) lighting and 2) a feeling of privacy (while not being completely deprived of human contact. I like bright lighting and a subdued (but warm) screen color scheme
Re:Job environments. (Score:2)
Re:Job environments. (Score:1)
Well, the Federal OSHA may not have enforcable rules on this, but your state version of OSHA might. Many states do have rules on this sort of thing.
States Rights!!
I have your solution. (Score:1, Interesting)
I bring my mp3 player along, and I put my headphones on. Make sure you have head phones, not ear phones. The ear phones are too small, and being much closer to your ear, they produce far more damage than head phones. And I turn the mp3 player on. Not very loud, since the place is not too noisy, but still, loud enough so that it drowns everything around.
Now the choice of music is entirely up to you. In my case, Rage Against the Machine (and the likes) does the trick. Something tells me you're going to go for something completely different.
The reason it might not work, is that many workplaces (my dad's for instance) do not allow music to be played. It has to do with not being able to hear the fire alarm. Then again, he works in a nuclear power plant, so I can see why they have those rules. In your case it might be different.
One more vote for ... (Score:2, Insightful)
a) Music. I have headphones on most of the time. Infra-red ones, so I don't get tangled. Just make sure people aren't scared of interrupting you - my colleagues know that I'm not blocking them out and am willing to talk to them.
b) Walking. I wander around and chat with friends.
Re:One more vote for ... (Score:2)
Ergonomics (Score:1)
While the federal OSHA standard has been repealed, many states have adopted regulations of their own, so you might check to see if your state's equivalent to OSHA has a web site.
Do a web search on "ergonomics" to find data to support your case. You may even find some recommendations that you can easily implement yourself. Or one place to start for a brief overview would be www.inventoryops.com/ergonomics.htm [inventoryops.com].
If you have someone responsible as a "Safety Officer" that might be a good place to start. Just don't suffer in silence.
noise-cancelling headphones (Score:1, Interesting)
Another idea, if you really hate the blandness of your cube/wall color, get some cheap fabric and tape/pin it up to the walls in your immediate work area. It's like wallpaper, but easier.
Re:noise-cancelling headphones (Score:1)
Here are a few of my personal favourites... (Score:3, Insightful)
Try and use a desk lamp with a plain old light bulb or a halogen bulb if you can.
Also dim the place a bit down if you can; my eyes get very tired if I'm exposed to much lighting for extended periods of time.
As long as you're not working as a graphics designer try and eliminate the colour white from your colour scheme, try reversing it for a change, white to black and vice versa, personally I don't code unless the editor I'm using has a black background with white letters. If you think about it staring at a monitor all day long with the colour white as a default background colour on most applications isn't all that different from staring at a brightly lit white cloth or white wall, your eyes _will_ get tired and that leads discomfort.
As for music, use headphones as much as you can, and don't be cheap when it comes to headphones. Make sure they're comfortable and cover your ear in a way that they sit _around_ your ear and not _on_ it, you'll be thankful later. As for what sort of music, to each his own I'm afraid. In my case it mostly depends on what I'm doing, if I'm in a "zone" I try to keep it uptempo, but most of the time just something in harmony with my inner rhythm (we all have it, it's just a matter of finding/noticing it).
There is just one rule I have about food, and that is "not too much". Don't eat so that you get a full stomach, that way you'll only get bloated which registered as a discomfort last time I checked
Also try and avoid sweets if you can, although it's perfectly alright to treat oneself to a biscuit or pastery every now and then. Try and avoid fatty foods if you can but overall try and keep a nice varied and balanced diet.
Postures are hard to find, but my best posture is when I sit so that almost every muscle in my body is relaxed and aren't dangling. I have a tendency to lie back in my chair with me feet on whatever I can find that lifts them from the floor.
But these are just a few of my suggestions, try these and pick the ones you find comfortable
Re:Here are a few of my personal favourites... (Score:1)
Try and use a desk lamp with a plain old light bulb or a halogen bulb if you can.
Also dim the place a bit down if you can; my eyes get very tired if I'm exposed to much lighting for extended periods of time.
As long as you're not working as a graphics designer try and eliminate the colour white from your colour scheme, try reversing it for a change, white to black and vice versa, personally I don't code unless the editor I'm using has a black background with white letters. If you think about it staring at a monitor all day long with the colour white as a default background colour on most applications isn't all that different from staring at a brightly lit white cloth or white wall, your eyes _will_ get tired and that leads discomfort.
Especially if you work at night, and people refer to you as "The Count"....
I strongly recommend (Score:1)
Quit and work from home! (Score:1)
Cube Sweet Cube (Score:3, Insightful)
Second, drink water. Get a nice big container and fill it from the local water cooler. Sip from it constantly. When it is empty, you will probably have to go to the restroom. On your way back fill the container again. Rinse and repeat. You will stay hydrated and your bladder will enforce an occasional stroll. Never underestimate the importance of hydration!
Other folks have mentioned forcibly removing fluorescent lights. I actually don't like it to be too dark, but my eyes get really irritated if I have to stare right into a fluorescent fixture. In the past I have solved this by using mosquito netting to create a screen. It was quite functional and looked ok. The netting diffused the light and softened it.
I like to create my own space by having lots of colorful stuff in my cube. Pictures, of course, and always toys. I favor yo-yos. Yo-yoing is a great break and helps to lubricate thinking. You have to stand up, stretch, move around. Learn some tricks. It's a great conversation starter, and you come back to the problem at hand more relaxed and focused.
What works for me... (Score:1)
We where on the second floor... the entire floor was open... so sound easily moves accross the entire thing. The floor vibrates really easy when people walk about the room... And you can see EVERYTHING just by looking up... LOL
(If I looked up and a little to my right I end up staring at the CEO... etc)
Although there was not much I could do about the vibration... one thing that helps is putting up things like bookshelvs. (I had a filing cabnet and a foldup table against one of my cubicle walls)
As far as noise goes... a REALLY good pair of headphones (the nice kind that cover up your entire ear) can cut down on a lot of noise... So the use of those plus some decent LOUD music
After listening to the music for a bit you forget its there... but its enough to take up a few of the extra cycles your mind ends up spending on thinking about everything that is bugging you...
Of course the fact the engeneering department stood in the hallway while they smoked instead of going outside was a bit of a problem too... considering around the later half of the day the damn place was rank with smoke fumes.......
Of course now I am working from home... Of course is a problem all on its own *grins*
Lighting (Score:2)
As simple as it may sound, make sure you've got a good eighteen to twenty-four inches between you and the monitor for most of the day.
If the walls are too dark and providing too much contrast, use posters as another comment suggested, or, alternatively, whiteboards (management loves to see those things around).
Stand-up work area. Really! (Score:4, Interesting)
Most if not all cubicle desks are latched into the vertical. Put them at 44 inches, or whatever is comfortable for you, and get a bar-stool style chair. Adjust the so you can comfortably work standing up, and sitting down, or with your butt half on the chair, whatever is most comfortable at that moment.
The human spine evolved for movement, walking, not sitting for long periods of time. This setup allows you to adjust your position constantly, exercising your lower back, legs, etc.
Of course, being in a Japanese company means that I don't get to have a cubicle to work with for the forseeable future myself, and I can really feel the difference.
So try the most ergonomic position of all. Stand up for yourself!
Bob-
Re:Stand-up work area. Really! (Score:1)
Re:Stand-up work area. Really! (Score:2)
Alternativly, sometimes instead of sitting on my chair I stand on my knees in from of the computer. Works for me, though it can only be done for so long.
Re:Stand-up work area. Really! (Score:2)
Kneeling chairs (Score:1)
I had 2 problems with the chairs:
1. Your shins can get a lot of weight on them sometimes depending on the way you have it angled, try to get it 35% shins, 65% ass: that's a lot mroe[**] comfortable
2. The crossbar with wheels on the back of my chair broke off after about 2 years of use. It was a relatively cheap chair, wooden with 2 index-finger sized pins holding the bar on - they snapped through the wood holding them (ok, so I am a prop, but a small one)...
Cheers,
Al.
Link: http://www.sitincomfort.com/kneechairs.html
* The game is "rugby", for all you white-skinned bearded people - think of it as American football for real men
** I bet I'm not the only person with alias mroe='more' in their rc
Telecommute (Score:5, Interesting)
I myself prefer telecommuting from a cafe. Cafes, I find, are ideal for working because:
(1) Nice persons bring hot tasty caffinated things right to you.
(2) No one cares if you get up and go for a half-hour walk.
(3) No one asks you annoying questions about how to "program" cells in Excel. (sigh)
(4) I live in Montreal in a Francophone neighbourhood, so (and this is utterly fantastic) I have *no* *idea* what people around me are nattering about! It's all the advantages of being around peeps enjoying themselves (which for some reason *always* relaxes me; it must be tribal psychological throwback) minus the drawback that you have to listen to fifteen-year-old girls psychoanalyzing each other and making grave pronouncements about each other's mental health or dateability or some such. At any rate, I imagine non-Quebequois can get a similar experience via a walkman.
<offtopic>The really weird thing is that I do, in fact, speak French, and not too badly at that; however, it's a second language learned after the childhood 'window'. For whatever reason, the consensus among myself and my friends with similar experiences is that comprehension for such languages is purely voluntary, whereas with your mother tongue eavesdropping is sometimes an uncontrollable fact of life. </offtopic>
Here's what I do ... (Score:5, Informative)
First, as others have mentioned, lighting can work wonders. The overhead lights (florescent) are about the worst thing you can use in an office environment with computers. On the other hand, too little light can be just as bad. I had a floor lamp (one of the ones that opens up toward the ceiling) that had a bulb go out, so I temporarily used a small (and very dim) desk lamp. It was about as bad as having too much light. The floor lamp is much better.
Also, here's a few other tips (some have been mentioned previously) that work for me:
Remember this -- you aren't there to look pretty, you are there to do your job. If you need to make modifications to your environment in order to improve your job performance, then it's worth it. I personally wear jeans, a sports shirt, and tennis shoes to work every day. It's a lot easier to work in that than it is to work in dressy clothes.Also, a lot of what works and doesn't work will depend on the person and possibly the company you are in. Each person has their own needs and what environment works for me may not work for others. YMMV.
Oh, and if your phone system uses standard phones (in other words, no proprietary multiline garbage, your call hold/transfer/conference uses flash hook, and you can use standard Wal-Mart phones on it) then you most likely don't have a DND button. Nortel's Meridian system can have add-on cards to support standard phones, as can many others. Just buy a project box, mount a SPST switch in it, connect one leg of the switch to one leg of a 600 ohm resistor, the other leg of the switch to one side of the phone line, and the remaining leg of the resistor to the other side of the line. When you flip the switch, it puts a 600 ohm load across the line, which is like taking the phone off hook. Instant busy signal. :) (Just make sure it is a standard phone compatible system -- else things can get a bit hairy when you start plugging things in like that.)
More suggestions (Score:1)
If you use a CRT, turn DOWN the resolution and move the monitor away from you. If the resolution is high enough that you have to have the monitor within 2 feet of you, it's too high! The more your eyes have to track back and forth across the screen, the faster they tire. (A larger screen can actually be detrimental to your health.) Keep the refresh at 75Hz or above. Turn the contrast down some (especially if your surrounding lighting is dim.) Better yet, get an LCD screen. Oh, and dump the white background.
Schedule your time out. If you find yourself losing track of the time, schedule a reminder every 90 minutes to get up and take a walk. *nix has a scheduler built in. Use it.
Skip the big lunch. Get yourself some snacks, and eat throughout the day. (Stick to the somewhat healthy food, if possible. Baby carrots work for me.) Keep water handy too.
Oh yeah, and if the Fire Hazard Nazis won't let you trade at least some of the overhead fluorescents for some indirect incandescents, it's probably time to find another company anyway.
Worst Suggestion (Score:2)
well... (Score:1)
- You'd better stop coffee and start drinking some tea. Aim for quality tea [ateasmuggler.com], it's not so expensive, but really tastes better. try with honey or sugar
- Try getting a better chair or armchair
- Listen to some quiet music (I recommend SomaFM's Drone Zone [somafm.com]).
It worked for me...well I still don't write my best code, but I think it's because I'm too lazy
Headphones DON'T block noise (Score:1)
I pity people who are unable to properly listen to a piece of music all the way through. But I also want to kill them when they won't afford anyone else the same privilege.
Ade_
/
Go Wireless (Score:2)
Ear plugs (Score:2)
When I really need to concentrate I find ear plugs are perfect. Now that my comptuer is a lot power laptop and NCD there are no fans on my desk, but just the heating system is annoying when I really need to think of a problem.
I don't like headphones. Maybe wireless would be okay, but wired are really annoying. A normal radio on low volumn works for my co-workers. Technically it is against the rules here, but the volume is so low you have to be in their cube to hear it. The key is even a whisper in you cube will drown out the radio.
don't work here... (Score:1)
Bose noise-cancelling headphones (Score:1)
I can't say anything about other brands. I went with Bose because I've used their Industrial Grade headphones (Bose X) on private aircraft with much success. Bose really knows how to negate noise.
Cheaper option to Bose (Score:1)
BTW, for all of you who are able to work at home, I hope you know how lucky you really are!!
Spend some work time STANDING (Score:1)
effort to remain standing helps me concentrate on reading, which in turn lets me shut out distractions.
It can even make sense to mount your keyboard and terminal so that you can use it standing up (if I had
an LCD terminal I would be able to switch from sitting to standing keyboarding, depending on what would
be most appropriate at the moment). It is a good switch from isolating yourself with headphones. Or
even try both.
It doesn't work if you have no privacy and numbnut coworkers who constantly ask why you are standing up
(translation: Why are you trying to do some work?), or if the facilities people object to a reading
platform (translation: Why are you trying to do some work? We sure don't)
breaks (Score:1)
Normally I would not recomend this (Score:1)
Have you tried cross-dresssing to work?
If you are not brave enough for that, just try some Victoria's Secret underwear.