Indoor or out, heat hurts work productivity
BY SANDRA GUY Business Reporter/sguy@suntimes.com July 19, 2011 7:58PM
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Updated: July 20, 2011 2:14AM
Productivity suffers in the heat, whether you are working outside or indoors, experts say.
It’s brutal to work outdoors during a heat wave, but even workers in air conditioned offices lose their edge.
Office workers’ productivity peaks at 71 to 72 degrees Fahrenheit, said William Fisk, a senior scientist Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.
In a study published recently in “Indoor Air,” a journal about indoor health and environment, Fisk and two colleagues found that office buildings often have poorly controlled temperatures.
Though productivity loss cannot be measured by each degree that the temperature rises, Fisk’s studies show that office workers’ productivity falls 3 percent when the thermometer hits 79 degrees and drops 10 percent when the indoor temperature reaches 87 degrees.
“People who are stressed by their environmental conditions get fatigued quicker and slow their movements and their metabolism,” he said.
Sandra Guy
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