Working Conditions

1
Working Conditions

• Poor working conditions can undermine all other
  good intentions (selection techniques,
  performance appraisal, management)
• Uncomfortable and/or dangerous environments
  reduce productivity

2
Physical Working Conditions

• Work Sites
• Location high traffic area, city/suburb.
  Younger workers seem to prefer cities
• Ease of navigation maze-like? Delivery people
• Child and Dependent-Care Facilities 2/3 of all
  new employees are women of childbearing age
• Reduces absenteeism rates
• Increases organizational commitment
• Growing need for elder care

3
Office Design

• Issues such as heating, AC, bathrooms, elevators
• Especially crucial for individuals with
  disabilities
• Proximity of managers offices influences
  spontaneous interactions
• Building size can influence formality of
  relations and morale
• Class Design further student sits from the
  teacher the worse their grade

4
Environmental Psychology

• Scientifically studies the effect of workplace
  design on behavior
• Landscaped offices were originally designed by
  this field
• Contain no walls, cubicles. Supposed to
  facilitate communication between workers
• Linked to job dissatisfaction. Complaints
  include lack of privacy, noise, and
  deindividuation

5
Illumination

• Intensity
• Optimal level varies with the nature of the task
  and the age of the worker
• Distribution
• Indirect lighting provides uniform illumination.
  Reduces eye strain
• Glare
• Reduces visual efficiency, increases eyestrain
• Darker paints, non-glossy paints and monitors
• Natural Light do people need it?

6
Noise

• Overall noise levels have increased 11 in the
  1990s
• Brief noise can cause permanent hearing loss
• Continuous noise is associated with high blood
  pressure and muscle tension.
• Even though we psychologically adjust, physiology
  remains elevated
• Loss of information in noisy environments?

7
Color

• Exaggerated claims have been made about room
  color. Some truth exists however
• Color coding useful for safety and navigation
• Used to reduce glare and eyestrain
• Influences temperature perception

8
Music

• Age old tradition in factories. History of music
  and readings
• Today it is most commonly provided by Muzak
• Muzak actually takes circadian rhythms into
  account and adjusts style of music to time of day

9
Temperature and Humidity

• Higher temperatures lead to a greater need for
  rest. More so for extreme physical exertion
• Automated office equipment produces heat and
  reduces humidity which may make the work
  environment uncomfortable

10
Temporal Conditions

• Traditional Work Week 6days/10 hrs a day
• 1938 Fair Labor Standards Act instituted the 5
  day, 40 hour week
• Nominal working hours prescribe of hours one
  is supposed to work. Not the actual amount of
  time spent working
• As you increase nominal you decrease actual
• Working overtime decreases overall productivity

11
Permanent Part-Time Employment

• On the increase. Why?
• Companies save . Do not have to provide full
  benefits to part-time workers.
• Companies receive increased production (nominal
  time vs. actual)
• Workers (some) prefer the increased flexibility,
  particularly single mothers

12
Other Time Options

• 4 Day Work Week leads to reduced absenteeism,
  easier to schedule workers
• Some companies allow every other Friday off
• Flextime combines core mandatory work periods
  with elective periods at the beginning and end of
  the day
• Work between 6.5-9.5 hours
• Helps with traffic congestion
• Many workers barely change (8 min. later, 22 min.
  longer), but report feeling better

13
Shift Work

• Work periods for 24 hr. a day operations
• Usually 7am-3pm, 3-11, 11-7am
• 25 of Americans do shift work
• Impact on workers?
• Less productive on the night shift
• More serious accidents on the night shift
• More mistakes are made on the night shift
• Caused by interruption of Circadian Rhythms
• Reduce problems by reducing frequency of shift
  changes or assigning permanent shifts

14
Psychological and Social Working Conditions

• Job simplification the reduction of
  manufacturing jobs to the simplest components
  that can be mastered
• Horrible physical and psychological effects on
  workers
• Originally made sense for mass production
  industries
• Stimulated the American economy

15
Fatigue

• A psychological and physiological concept
• Ebbs and flows during the day
• Seems linked to motivation
• Factors linked to fatigue include
• Low job challenge
• Poor supervision
• Low job control
• Low ratings by supervisor
• Low pay
• Low information processing demands

16
Telecommuting

• Increasing due to advances in PCs and fax
  technology
• Approximately 15 million Americans
• Companies report gains in productivity and
  reduction in office overhead and absenteeism
• Pitfalls include lack of social interaction,
  reality that some workers need supervision