Department of Psychology, Stress Research Institute, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden.
Department of Psychology, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden.
PLoS One. 2020 Apr 29;15(4):e0231934. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0231934. eCollection 2020.
Previous research suggesting that open-plan office environments are associated with higher rates of sickness absence rely on self-reports which can be affected by recall bias. This paper investigates the associations of sickness absence, obtained from employer records as well as self-reports, with office type (cell offices and different sizes of open-plan offices). It additionally studies whether office type is associated with sickness presence.
Employees from two private and one public sector organization were recruited to the study. Office type was ascertained by direct observation or from employee responses to an online survey. Control variables were gender, age, public/private sector and education level. Number of days and episodes of sickness absence were calculated from employer absence records and regressed on office type using negative binomial regression (n = 988). Self-reports of sickness absence and presence were regressed on office type using ordered logistic regression (n = 1237).
Office type was generally not associated with employer records of number of episodes or days of sickness absence, except that the total number of days of leave was higher in flex offices compared to cell offices (IRR = 2.46, p = 0.007). In general, office type was not associated with self-reported days of sickness absence, apart from participants working in medium-sized open-plan offices who had 0.42 higher log-odds of absence than those working in cell offices (p = 0.004). Office type was not associated with self-reported sickness presence.
Office type was not associated with sickness presence nor, in general, with sickness absence, whether obtained from self-reports or company records. It is not possible to conclude from this study that open-plan offices are associated with greater sickness absence or sickness presence compared to cell offices.
先前的研究表明，开放式办公环境与更高的病假率有关，但这些研究依赖于可能受到回忆偏差影响的自我报告。本文调查了病假缺勤率（从雇主记录和自我报告中获得）与办公类型（独立办公室和不同大小的开放式办公室）之间的关联。此外，本文还研究了办公类型是否与病假出勤有关。
从两家私营企业和一家公共部门组织招募了员工参与研究。通过直接观察或员工对在线调查的回答来确定办公类型。控制变量包括性别、年龄、私营/公共部门和教育水平。从雇主缺勤记录中计算病假缺勤天数和缺勤事件，并使用负二项回归（n=988）将其与办公类型相关联。使用有序逻辑回归（n=1237）将自我报告的病假缺勤和出勤与办公类型相关联。
除了灵活办公相比独立办公室的总休假天数更高（IRR=2.46，p=0.007）外，办公类型通常与雇主记录的缺勤事件或天数无关。总体而言，办公类型与自我报告的病假缺勤天数无关，除了在中等大小的开放式办公室工作的参与者，他们的缺勤可能性比在独立办公室工作的参与者高出 0.42（p=0.004）。办公类型与自我报告的病假出勤无关。
从自我报告或公司记录中，办公类型与病假缺勤或病假出勤均无关。从这项研究中，我们无法得出开放式办公室比独立办公室与更高的病假缺勤率或病假出勤率有关的结论。
