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I would like to see the statistics on absenteeism and sick days after such a change. My work just switched to open plan, and anecdotally this last flu season w

I would like to see the statistics on absenteeism and sick days after such a change. My work just switched to open plan, and anecdotally this last flu season was one of the worst I’ve seen in 3.5 years at this place, with nearly every person in a room of approx. 120-150 (all open plan) getting ill at some point. I think probably nobody stopped to think of that negative impact of open seating, especially on people with special immune system needs.

w0utert 8y ago
Not sure if you are thinking about sick leave because open-space office plans are worse for spreading contagious diseases, or because people are simply less motivated to come into the office if they feel a little weak or tired. I would not be surprised at all if the latter actually has more impact.
- mikestew 8y ago
  people are simply less motivated to come into the office if they feel a little weak or tired Au contraire, as the open office plan is usually paired with the "all-in-one-bucket-PTO" plan. So if you take a sick day, it comes out of your vacation/holiday time. Ergo, employees are even more motivated to come in while feeling a little puny. Otherwise the kids are going to be pissed when you have to trim a day off that trip to Disney World.
  - ummonk 8y ago
    Wait, what? No place I've seen (and all have been open office) has taken sick leave out of vacation PTO. That's crazy. Employees have to draw the line somewhere.
    - ghaff 8y ago
      All-in-one-bucket PTO plans are extremely common including at large tech companies. I think it's a bad system but it's increasingly the norm outside of "unlimited" PTO plans. It's definitely not some weird outlier.
    - mikestew 8y ago
      Did the company give you a bucket of days and say, "use it however you want!"? Then they're taking sick days out of vacation days. I'm guessing that you're either not in the U. S., or you've just never looked at it that way before. The last two places I've worked full-time work that way.
      - ummonk 8y ago
        Currently at Facebook as an FTE I get a sizable number of vacation days which is the “use it however you want” bucket. Off the top of my head, sick days, jury duty, parental leave, and taking time off to care for a sick family member all do not count towards that vacation bucket. My last workplace (Asana) has untracked PTO. All the places I got offers from (established companies) had either untracked PTO or seperate vacation and sick leave.

w0utert 8y ago

Not sure if you are thinking about sick leave because open-space office plans are worse for spreading contagious diseases, or because people are simply less motivated to come into the office if they feel a little weak or tired. I would not be surprised at all if the latter actually has more impact.

mikestew 8y ago
people are simply less motivated to come into the office if they feel a little weak or tired Au contraire, as the open office plan is usually paired with the "all-in-one-bucket-PTO" plan. So if you take a sick day, it comes out of your vacation/holiday time. Ergo, employees are even more motivated to come in while feeling a little puny. Otherwise the kids are going to be pissed when you have to trim a day off that trip to Disney World.
- ummonk 8y ago
  Wait, what? No place I've seen (and all have been open office) has taken sick leave out of vacation PTO. That's crazy. Employees have to draw the line somewhere.
  - ghaff 8y ago
    All-in-one-bucket PTO plans are extremely common including at large tech companies. I think it's a bad system but it's increasingly the norm outside of "unlimited" PTO plans. It's definitely not some weird outlier.
  - mikestew 8y ago
    Did the company give you a bucket of days and say, "use it however you want!"? Then they're taking sick days out of vacation days. I'm guessing that you're either not in the U. S., or you've just never looked at it that way before. The last two places I've worked full-time work that way.
    - ummonk 8y ago
      Currently at Facebook as an FTE I get a sizable number of vacation days which is the “use it however you want” bucket. Off the top of my head, sick days, jury duty, parental leave, and taking time off to care for a sick family member all do not count towards that vacation bucket. My last workplace (Asana) has untracked PTO. All the places I got offers from (established companies) had either untracked PTO or seperate vacation and sick leave.