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Is this really considered a perk? It is a bit like getting paid is a perk. I work in Germany where direct access to natural sunlight is part of our OH&S polici
by yitchelle 8y ago
Is this really considered a perk? It is a bit like getting paid is a perk.
I work in Germany where direct access to natural sunlight is part of our OH&S policies.
- myspy 8y agoThank you, I wanted to point this out too. Awkward how other countries think about work environments.
- baby 8y agoI’ve worked in an office without windows, really takes a toll on you.
- tomkat0789 8y agoYep, I've never worked in a room with windows. It leads to what I call coal miner syndrome: go in before the sun rises, leave after it sets. Bums me out, particularly during the winter. :( Luckily, where I work now, we're getting a new office, and when the manager presented the plans, one of the first questions was, "Who gets the window seats!?"
- executesorder66 8y agoI think their point was it's so obvious that it shouln't be considered a perk. "I've worked in an office without getting paid, really takes a toll on you." Sounds ridiculous. Why would you work without getting paid? Same for natural light.
- ehnto 8y agoLikewise. It's insidious if you don't realise that's what's causing you to feel horrible. You start to think you hate your job, but it's just the workspace that's causing you to feel trapped and anxious. Like some other people have mentioned, you start wondering if you might prefer to work construction or in a food truck or just anything so long as it's outside. But really you can get most of the way outside with a good office space and you may find you enjoy your job a whole lot more.
- odonnellryan 8y agoEh. I don't get much light in my office which is in a basement. I haven't noticed much.
- voltooid 8y agoHave they also taken away your stapler?
- jcadam 8y agoAlways. Do cleared work (defense contracting) and you will never see the sun. I have to take regular walks outside during the day to say sane(-ish).
- emidln 8y agoMy favorite work site (outside of my home) was an interior office that I usually kept dark with the door closed. Time would fade away and I could focus on the problem at hand. I didn't keep a clock visible on my screen, and so sometimes I'd come out after 9pm. Other times, I'd be around 1pm or 2pm. I'd go take a walk if I wanted natural light or non-textual conversation. I would love for a similar setup at a future job. If an employer doesn't offer remote work or a door, my rate goes up a lot.
- jghjg 8y agoLol what a sad person
- moftz 8y agoThat might be fine for a single person but having someone in your life means the monastic office thing isn't going to work out. You both need to get home at a decent hour, ideally coming and going at the same time everyday to keep schedules lined up if you want to spend any time at all during the week.
- matwood 8y agoI'm sure there are exceptions. What if the worker is in an office handling German classified materials all day?
- coldtea 8y agoThen they are entitled to more frequent breaks and/or extra leave days as part of their contract.
- kaybe 8y agoThe satellite control rooms do indeed not have natural light. But all the people working there have another office with natural light they can use when their presence is not required in the control room (which is most of the time).
- tropo 8y agoOK then, how about the navy? Germany has 6 submarines.
- minikites 8y agoDepends on who you ask. Just a few days ago there was a comment in a thread about Microsoft requiring its suppliers to offer paid parental leave that called it a "fad benefit".
- staz 8y agoNext perk they gonna get is "breathable air"
- majjam 8y agoNot sure if sarcasm, but that is a perk in some places: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gmn7tjSNyAA&feature=youtu.be https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gmn7tjSNyAA&feature=youtu.be
- coaxial 8y agoWell, you already have "ping pong tables", "snacks", "disrupting the world" and "open space floor plan" listed as perks quite often, so why not. It is a perk as opposed to no breathing air, so...
- laythea 8y agoI would not read a job advert for a company with "ping pong tables" and think that's a company I would like to work for. I don't wake up in the morning to go play ping pong! No more ping pong please ! :)
- Cthulhu_ 8y agoI would like that, my previous assignment was in a very old (>50 years) office building with broken HVAC, temperatures were always at least 25 degrees (C), also in winter. And of course those at the windows would leave them closed to avoid the draft, so us scrubs at the far end would have nothing.
- test1235 8y agoI get crappy air conditioning which blows slightly-too-warm air directly into my face and dries out my contact lens. I've resorted to sticking a takeaway menu into the vent to stop it blowing in my direction.
- Nursie 8y agoIn some offices, yes. I worked for a large department in a huge corporation about 3 years ago. Around half the department sat in a large cube-farm room. Around the edges of that room were managers' offices and a meeting room, which entirely cut off natural light. It was like a vegas casino in there, perpetual half light, no concept of time of day. Really depressing. I was glad I got to sit upstairs by a window.
- maxxxxx 8y ago" Around the edges of that room were managers' offices and a meeting room, which entirely cut off natural light." That's pretty much my setup. It feels especially good to have managers with windows offices tell you to man up when you complain about lack of light.
- mscasts 8y agoI was going to write that as well. I worked at a place that had automatic curtains which covered the windows when it was sunny out. It immediately felt like a prison when they went down and that was a standing joke among employees. I can't even imagine working in a place like that 8 hours a day. I would probably rather live in the woods or something.
- p2t2p 8y agoWith that openspace crap it hard to get the daylight even though the building has large windows. You sit somewhere in the middle of the raw, closer to the other end from the window and your colleagues close blinds because it apparently too bright for their dank dark color schemes in their editors.
- sidibe 8y agoAt least there are big windows in the room with open offices. This is one of the reasons I prefer them.
- princekolt 8y agoThat's why buildings with a large footprint are generally bad. But many levels is also bad because it creates division between people who work at different levels. A good compromise is a building with a large hollow area in the middle to let sunlight into the "inner" walls, and with not too many levels.
- dasmoth 8y agoMultiple small-ish buildings on a campus can be good too, especially if you can manage some green space between them. The offices-in-cities trend seems to have put an end to this kind of setup, though.
- emodendroket 8y agoNow that I think about it, I suppose I almost never open my own blinds at home.
- justbaker 8y agoSeriously? I complain about not having windows to let natural light in and the fluorescent lights and people look at me like I’m crazy for being sensitive to artificial light.
- lighthazard 8y agoCrazy for being sensitive to it :).
- xaldir 8y agoThese days having an actual office is considered a perk, so...
- goshx 8y agoIt is for me. I’ve been working in an office that resembles a bunker with absolutely no natural light and it takes a toll on your mood, mental health and my latest blood work shows deficiency in vitamin D, which can lead to many diseases.
- Tobani 8y agoWe've got nice big windows and lots of natural light (most of the time) but we had to lobby our facilities manager to put in a switch so we could turn off the overhead fluorescent lighting.