Personnel Today
  • OHW+
  • Resources
    • Clinical governance
    • Disability
    • Ergonomics
    • Health surveillance
    • OH employment law
    • OH service delivery
    • Research
    • Return to work and rehabilitation
    • Sickness absence management
    • Wellbeing and health promotion
  • Conditions
    • Mental health
    • Musculoskeletal disorders
    • Blood pressure
    • Cancer
    • Cardiac
    • Dementia
    • Diabetes
    • Respiratory
    • Stroke
  • CPD
  • Webinars
  • Jobs
  • Personnel Today

Register
Log in
Personnel Today
  • OHW+
  • Resources
    • Clinical governance
    • Disability
    • Ergonomics
    • Health surveillance
    • OH employment law
    • OH service delivery
    • Research
    • Return to work and rehabilitation
    • Sickness absence management
    • Wellbeing and health promotion
  • Conditions
    • Mental health
    • Musculoskeletal disorders
    • Blood pressure
    • Cancer
    • Cardiac
    • Dementia
    • Diabetes
    • Respiratory
    • Stroke
  • CPD
  • Webinars
  • Jobs
  • Personnel Today

StressOfficesResearchMental health conditionsWellbeing

Open plan office workers more active and less stressed than those who sit alone

by Ashleigh Webber 21 Aug 2018
by Ashleigh Webber 21 Aug 2018

Staff in open plan offices are more likely to be active and have lower stress levels during their working day than those in cubicles or in private offices, according to a study.

Workers in offices with no partitions or low partitions between desks were on average 31.8% more active than those who sat in a solitary office and 20.1% more active than those in cubicles, a study involving 231 workers in four office buildings in the US found.

Stress

How to prevent workplace stress

Stress at work policy and procedure

The study – Effects of office workstation type on physical activity and stress, which was published in the Occupational and Environmental Medicine journal – measured physiological stress and physical activity using a small, chest-worn sensor.

Levels of perceived stress were also measured using a smartphone app that prompted participants at a random point every hour to rate how stressed they felt on a scale of 1-7.

It found that staff who sat in “open bench” seating experienced lower levels of perceived stress while at work than those in cubicles – a difference of 9.1%.

Impromptu conversations were more likely to take place in open office environments than at solitary desks. Open plan seating was also more likely to give staff an increased awareness of other people.

It suggested that open-plan offices led to increased physical activity by promoting interaction between colleagues and encouraging staff to take any unplanned meetings or phone calls to another area.

Staff in more open offices might also be more dependent on “shared services”, such as printers and meeting rooms, than those in private offices, which encourage them to move around more.

“This is the first study to show that open bench seating may be an unrecognised positive factor in promoting physical activity levels at work,” the study says.

“Given the importance of physical activity to health, the fact that office workstation type may influence how much people move at work should not be overlooked.”

Sign up to our weekly round-up of HR news and guidance

Receive the Personnel Today Direct e-newsletter every Wednesday

OptOut
This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Esther Sternberg, study author and professor at University of Arizona College of Medicine, was reported on the BBC as having said: “We all know we should be increasing our activity but no matter how we try to encourage people to engage in healthy behaviour, it doesn’t work for long.

“So changing office design to encourage healthy behaviour is a passive way of getting people to be more active.”

Ashleigh Webber

Ashleigh is a former editor of OHW+ and former HR and wellbeing editor at Personnel Today. Ashleigh's areas of interest include employee health and wellbeing, equality and inclusion and skills development. She has hosted many webinars for Personnel Today, on topics including employee retention, financial wellbeing and menopause support.

previous post
Government appears to drop 3 million apprenticeships target
next post
Real weekly earnings £13 lower than before the financial crisis

You may also like

Uncertainty over law hampering legal use of medical...

20 May 2025

Employers ‘worryingly’ ignorant about stress risk assessments

20 May 2025

Awareness weeks fuel spike in demand for mental...

19 May 2025

Healthcare workers prioritise mental health support in new...

12 May 2025

Two-thirds of school leaders suffering mental ill health

6 May 2025

‘Healthy work’ about much more than access to...

28 Apr 2025

Tool developed for employers to calculate cost of...

28 Apr 2025

Why employers must do more to support all...

24 Apr 2025

How to help employees quit vaping before new...

22 Apr 2025

NHS urging people to check for cancer warning...

22 Apr 2025

  • 2025 Employee Communications Report PROMOTED | HR and leadership...Read more
  • The Majority of Employees Have Their Eyes on Their Next Move PROMOTED | A staggering 65%...Read more
  • Prioritising performance management: Strategies for success (webinar) WEBINAR | In today’s fast-paced...Read more
  • Self-Leadership: The Key to Successful Organisations PROMOTED | Eletive is helping businesses...Read more
  • Retaining Female Talent: Four Ways to Reduce Workplace Drop Out PROMOTED | International Women’s Day...Read more

PERSONNEL TODAY

About us
Contact us
Browse all HR topics
Email newsletters
Content feeds
Cookies policy
Privacy policy
Terms and conditions

JOBS

Personnel Today Jobs
Post a job
Why advertise with us?

EVENTS & PRODUCTS

The Personnel Today Awards
The RAD Awards
Employee Benefits
Forum for Expatriate Management
OHW+
Whatmedia

ADVERTISING & PR

Advertising opportunities
Features list 2025

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • Linkedin


© 2011 - 2025 DVV Media International Ltd

Personnel Today
  • OHW+
  • Resources
    • Clinical governance
    • Disability
    • Ergonomics
    • Health surveillance
    • OH employment law
    • OH service delivery
    • Research
    • Return to work and rehabilitation
    • Sickness absence management
    • Wellbeing and health promotion
  • Conditions
    • Mental health
    • Musculoskeletal disorders
    • Blood pressure
    • Cancer
    • Cardiac
    • Dementia
    • Diabetes
    • Respiratory
    • Stroke
  • CPD
  • Webinars
  • Jobs
  • Personnel Today