Advanced Ergonomics

Jennifer Veitch, PhD, a senior research officer at the National Research Council of Canada in Ottawa, investigates how indoor lighting affects employee well-being and productivity and how employee behaviors affect the use of resources and energy. Dr. Veitch recently completed a study on the impact of control over workspace lighting on workers. Findings of her research revealed that when people have control over the lighting in their work spaces, their moods are more upbeat, they are more committed to their employers, and they have overall improved well-being. Individually controlled lighting also reduced lighting energy use by 10 percent.

For this unit's discussion, please share your thoughts on the pros and cons of implementing individually controlled lighting in an office environment.

Please include the name of the person or question to which you are replying in the subject line. For example, "Tom's response to Susan's comment."

ALSO PLEASE REPLY TO ANOTHER STUDENTS COMMENT BELOW 

MATTHEW:

I have recently had this discussion with my management team at my workplace. We have a  lab where there is adjustable lighting. This serves two purposes to protect early exposure of our plates we make for our off-set printing process, and also reduces glare and lessens eye strains for those working in that department. One issue I have is that if the employees working in that area dim the lights too low it could create a safety issue due to lack of visibility. When you dim lights it makes it harder to see potential hazards that could cause slips, trips, falls, or other injuries. To compromise as we often find ourselves doing in this line of work, I met with the team to establish a limit on how dim the lights can be and still be deemed safe. This has resulted in process improvement as well as increased employee morale. I wish that the lights in my office were adjustable. I do not have any windows in my office so there is no natural lights. I think I would be happier if I could lower the lighting levels in my office from time to time. It is nice to have that control over your work environment. You just have to keep in mind the safety as well as quality aspects as well. You want to ensure lighting is sufficient on the production floor in order to catch any defects.