•We studied whether fNIRS could differentiate between different levels of difficulty in everyday representations of reading and writing tasks of information workers.•We used personalised tasks to ...each participant, with simulated interruptions to increase ecological validity of task within a laboratory study.•Subjective self-reports showed differences for both reading and writing tasks, where the hard dual-task level was significantly different from easy and medium levels.•fNIRS over the prefrontal cortex was able to discern the same difference for reading, but not for writing.•These results could be explained by the neural areas in which mental workload was presented for both tasks.•fNIRS detected some differences in brain activity which corresponded to the interruptions, and the findings can be understood in terms of spare capacity models.
The motivation behind using physiological measures to estimate cognitive activity is typically to build technology that can help people to understand themselves and their work, or indeed for systems to do so and adapt. While functional Near Infrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS) has been shown to reliably reflect manipulations of mental workload in different work tasks, we still need to establish whether fNIRS can differentiate variety within common office-like tasks in order to broaden our understanding of the factors involved in tracking them in real working conditions. 20 healthy participants (8 females, 12 males), whose work included office-like tasks, took part in a user study that investigated a) the sensitivity of fNIRS for measuring mental workload variations in representations of everyday reading and writing tasks, and b) how representations of natural interruptions are reflected in the data. Results supported fNIRS measuring PFC activation in differentiating between workload levels for reading tasks but not writing tasks in terms of increased oxygenated haemoglobin (O2Hb) and decreased deoxygenated haemoglobin (HHb), for harder conditions compared to easier conditions. There was considerable support for fNIRS in detecting changes in workload levels due to interruptions. Variations in workload levels during the interruptions could be understood in relation to spare capacity models. These findings may guide future work into sustained monitoring of cognitive activity in real-world settings.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
BACKGROUND: With the COVID-19 pandemic, organizations embraced Work From Home (WFH). An important component of transitioning to WFH is the effect on workers, particularly related to their ...productivity and work experience. OBJECTIVES: The objective of this study is to examine how worker-, workspace-, and work-related factors affected productivity and time spent at a workstation on a typical WFH day during the pandemic. METHODS: An online questionnaire was designed and administered to collect the necessary information. Data from 988 respondents were included in the analyses. RESULTS: Overall perception of productivity level among workers did not change relative to their in-office productivity before the pandemic. Female, older, and high-income workers were likely to report increased productivity. Productivity was positively influenced by better mental and physical health statuses, having a teenager, increased communication with coworkers and having a dedicated room for work. Number of hours spent at a workstation increased by approximately 1.5 hours during a typical WFH day. Longer hours were reported by individuals who had school age children, owned an office desk or an adjustable chair, and had adjusted their work hours. CONCLUSION: The findings highlight key factors for employers and employees to consider for improving the WFH experience.
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IZUM, KILJ, NUK, OILJ, PILJ, SAZU, UL, UM, UPUK, VSZLJ
VR devices have recently been actively promoted as tools for knowledge workers and prior work has demonstrated that VR can support some knowledge worker tasks. However, only a few studies have ...explored the effects of prolonged use of VR such as a study observing 16 participants working in VR and a physical environment for one work-week each and reporting mainly on subjective feedback. As a nuanced understanding of participants' behavior in VR and how it evolves over time is still missing, we report on the results from an analysis of 559 hours of video material obtained in this prior study. Among other findings, we report that (1) the frequency of actions related to adjusting the headset reduced by 46% and the frequency of actions related to supporting the headset reduced by 42% over the five days; (2) the HMD was removed 31% less frequently over the five days but for 41% longer periods; (3) wearing an HMD is disruptive to normal patterns of eating and drinking, but not to social interactions, such as talking. The combined findings in this work demonstrate the value of long-term studies of deployed VR systems and can be used to inform the design of better, more ergonomic VR systems as tools for knowledge workers.
Self-tracking devices have been observed to accelerate time, be used sporadically and busyness being a barrier to use at work. Drawing on notion of multiple temporalities, this article expands the ...focus on temporalities of users’ engagement with technologies to analysing them within broader biographical, institutional and political times. The argument is grounded in interviews with UK public sector office workers self-tracking sitting time that featured the following three themes: (1) the participants related their sitting to deteriorated work conditions after government austerity politics and redundancies, (2) the pressurised rhythm of work made it difficult to reduce sitting time and fostered a sense of discontent and powerlessness and (3) the workers did not self-track in their free time, defined as free from monitoring. We suggest that the analytical lens of multiple temporalities expands understanding of user experiences as well as illuminates lived contemporary political and institutional times, characterised by both discontent and powerlessness.
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NUK, OILJ, SAZU, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Sedentary behavior at work contributes to detrimental cognitive outcomes (e.g., decreases in attention). The length of time that cognitive performance benefits are sustained following bouts of ...breaking up sitting (e.g., using sit-stand desks or walking) is not known. A narrative review of the literature was conducted using a systematic search strategy, with keywords related to breaking up sitting interventions in office-based environments and cognitive performance outcomes in the period immediately post the cessation of the breaking up sitting intervention. Three types of office-based breaking up sitting interventions were identified; 1) sit-stand desks, 2) walking desks and 3) cycling desks. From the eight studies which met the criteria, the impacts of these interventions on cognitive performance outcomes were mixed, with significant benefits in some studies and others reporting no benefit. Of the cognitive domains assessed, working memory, attention, and psychomotor function showed significant sustained improvement for up to 30 minutes post intervention. While there are benefits to a key set of cognitive performance domains following breaking up sitting interventions in office-based settings, no studies have evaluated whether benefits to cognitive performance persist for longer than 30 minutes after the breaking up sitting intervention. Furthermore, specific applications of these cognitive benefits to tasks outside of work (e.g., driving home from work) are unknown.
Introduction. The work studies the system of county administration on the territory of the Komi Region at the end of the XVII – first half of the XVIII century. This period was characterized by ...significant transformations based on changing the system of public administration from voivodeship- clerical into collegiate. It was actively implemented in the highest and central authorities, not only changing the document management system, but also forming a new state apparatus. The situation was different in the county voivodeship offices, such as, the voivodeship office in Komi Region.
Materials and Methods. The main research methods were system-structural, historical, formal-legal, etc., which became basic in the analysis of published and unpublished documents.
Results and Discussion. As shown by the study of published and unpublished documents on the territory of the Komi Region (Yarensky uyezd), populated with black-collar and later state peasantry, there was no transition from the voivodeship – clerical to the collegiate system of management and office management at the time under study. The collegiate model of public administration, formulated in the new administrative legislation, could not displace the Voivodeship model. The clerical system evolved according to its own laws and demonstrated viability, and the collegiate system was forced to adapt to the requirements of the reforming tsar. This was especially evident when the county office carried out the document management.
Conclusion. Carrying out the reforms of the beginning of the XVIII century, the authorities on the county level could not organize the transformation of the clerical service and management and was not ready for changes. As a result, the clerical office work was maintained along with the collegiate one. Collegiate office work was actively introduced and developed in the central office. On the ground, for example, the Yarensky uyezd, clerical office work continued to be preserved, and collegiate one became dominant only by the middle of the XVIII century.
Musculoskeletal disorders occur with different frequency and intensity within particular occupational groups. On the basis of the research and observations carried out, the features of people and ...their living environment, which predispose to the development of disease changes within the locomotor system, were identified. They are divided into two categories: occupational risk factors and non occupational risk factors. The aim of this paper is to present the main risk factors for musculoskeletal pain among office workers. Early identification and knowledge of vulnerable people allows to plan and implement corrective and preventive actions at the stage when they have a chance to effectively limit, stop or even reverse the disease changes developing in these people.
Musculoskeletal disorders occur with different frequency and intensity within particular occupational groups. On the basis of the research and observations carried out, the features of people and ...their living environment, which predispose to the development of disease changes within the locomotor system, were identified. They are divided into two categories: occupational risk factors and non occupational risk factors. The aim of this paper is to present the main risk factors for musculoskeletal pain among office workers. Early identification and knowledge of vulnerable people allows to plan and implement corrective and preventive actions at the stage when they have a chance to effectively limit, stop or even reverse the disease changes developing in these people.
Energy conservation in buildings as a way to reduce the emission of greenhouse gases is forcing an urgent re-examination of how closely thermal and air quality conditions should be controlled in ...buildings. Allowing conditions to drift outside the optimum range would conserve very large amounts of energy and would in most cases have only marginal effects on health or subjective comfort. The question that then arises is whether occupant performance would be negatively affected and if so, by how much. This information is required for cost-benefit analyses. The answers in this paper are based on laboratory and field experiments that have been carried out since the massive increase in energy costs that took place in the 1970s. Although only a few of the mechanisms by which indoor environmental effects occur have been identified, it is already clear that any economies achieved by energy conservation will be greatly exceeded by the costs incurred due to decreased performance. Reducing emissions by allowing indoor environmental conditions to deteriorate would thus be so expensive that it would justify greatly increased investment in more efficient use of energy in buildings in which conditions are not allowed to deteriorate. Labour costs in buildings exceed energy costs by two orders of magnitude, and as even the thermal and air quality conditions that the majority of building occupants currently accept can be shown to reduce performance by 5–10% for adults and by 15–30% for children, we cannot afford to allow them to deteriorate still further.
•Thermal and indoor air quality effects on the performance of office work and schoolwork are reviewed.•Thermal conditions and indoor air quality do affect the performance of office work and schoolwork.•Mechanisms underlying the observed effects are reviewed.•Thermal conditions and indoor air quality tend to affect performance “across the board”.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZRSKP
Summary
We argue that the literature on presenteeism needs to consider that employees not only go to work despite being ill but also often work from home despite being ill, especially since the ...COVID‐19 crisis enabled home‐office work on a large scale. We label this phenomenon “workahomeism” and develop theory that shows its distinctness from traditional presenteeism through the evoked pattern of guilt. Across three studies (a vignette experiment, a critical incident study, and a within‐person intervention study), we tested whether employees' work‐related reactions to illness (i.e., workahomeism, presenteeism, and resting at home) differ in terms of experienced and anticipated guilt. We found that when employees considered engaging in workahomeism, they anticipated feeling less guilty than when resting at home. However, when employees actually engaged in workahomeism, they felt as guilty or even more guilty than when resting at home. In contrast, employees' anticipated guilt for presenteeism as compared to workahomeism changed from the same to more after the beginning of the COVID‐19 crisis. Furthermore, we identify facets of guilt in response to workahomeism (i.e., guilt toward colleagues and about own health) and demonstrate that organizations can change guilt patterns by asking employees to reflect on the consequences of workahomeism and presenteeism.
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BFBNIB, FZAB, GIS, IJS, KILJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, SBCE, SBMB, UL, UM, UPUK
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