RESUMO
OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to investigate and explore Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) management, office ergonomics, and musculoskeletal symptoms in a group of office workers relocating from cell offices to activity-based flex offices (AFOs). METHODS: The analysis was based on qualitative interview data with 77 employees and longitudinal questionnaire data from 152 employees. RESULTS: Results indicate that there was a need to clarify roles and processes related to the management of OHS. Self-rated sit comfort, working posture, and availability of daylight deteriorated and symptoms in neck and shoulders increased after the relocation and seemed to be influenced by many factors, such as difficulties adjusting the workstations, the availability of suitable workplaces, and age, sex, and individual needs. CONCLUSION: Research on the long-term effects of physical work environments and management of (OHS) issues after implementing activity-based flex offices is sparse. This study demonstrates the importance of planning and organising OHS issue management when implementing an AFO, and to carefully implement office ergonomics among office workers.
RESUMO
Implementation of activity-based flex offices (AFOs) are becoming increasingly common. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of an AFO on perceived productivity, satisfaction, work environment and health. Questionnaire data from the longitudinal, quasi-experimental Active Office Design Study was used. The study evaluates a public organization relocating staff to either an AFO or to cell offices. Measures from baseline, 6 and 18 months after relocation, were analyzed. Employees in the AFO experienced a decreased productivity and satisfaction with the office design. Lack of privacy as well as increased noise disturbance, less satisfaction with sit comfort and work posture were reported. Employees in the AFO with work tasks requiring a high degree of concentration experienced lower productivity while those with a high proportion of teamwork rated productivity to be continually high. No significant group differences were found between the two office types in general health, cognitive stress, salutogenic health indicators or pain in the neck, shoulder or back. The study highlights the importance of taking work characteristics into account in the planning and implementation process of an AFO. Flexible and interactive tasks seem more appropriate in an AFO, whereas individual tasks demanding concentration seem less fit.
Assuntos
Satisfação no Emprego , Satisfação Pessoal , Eficiência , Humanos , Inquéritos e Questionários , Local de TrabalhoRESUMO
The evidence for dispersal activity among soil-living invertebrates comes mainly from observations of their movement on artificial substrates or of colonisation of defaunated soils in the field. In an attempt to elucidate the dispersal pattern of soil collembolans in the presence of conspecifics, statistical analyses were undertaken to describe and simulate the movement of groups of Onychiurus armatus released in trays of homogeneous soil. A chi(2) test was used to reject the null hypothesis that individuals moved independently of each other and uniformly in all directions. The mean radial distance moved (1-2 cm day(-1)) and the radial standard deviation varied temporally and with the density of conspecifics. To capture the interaction between the moving individuals, four dispersal models (pure diffusion, diffusion with drift interaction, drift interaction and synchronised diffusion, and drift interaction and behavioural mood), were formulated as stochastic differential equations. The parameters of the models were estimated by minimising the deviance between the observed replicates and replicates that were simulated using the models. The dynamics of movement were best described by modelling the drift interaction as dependent on whether individuals were in a social or an asocial mood.
