Studying the Role of Workplaces Layout on Employees Health: Sick Building Syndrome

Workplace architecture is one of the most important factors influencing employees' health and wellbeing. Therefore, it is necessary to study the role of workplace design on the emergence of various types of health problems among employees. The present research aims to study the prevailing conditions at the case studied workplaces and to identify the role of factors influenced by interior layout (location-ergonomics, lighting, indoor air quality (IAQ), temperature, noise, design style, and cleaning) on the emergence of Sick Building Syndrome among employees.

In the present study, three administration buildings [roads and urban development office, construction engineering organization, and airport] in Urmia, Tabriz are investigated as case studies and a total of 226 employees working in these buildings are selected as samples. Then, they are asked to fill out a questionnaire to collect the required data. The reliability of the questionnaire is confirmed using Cronbach's alpha coefficient. The SPSS V.25 software is used to statistically analyze the data.

The findings indicate that despite the advantages of open plan layout for the organization of work environments, it provides many negative consequences such as increased noise and distraction, lack of ergonomics, congestion, reduced privacy, and the impossibility of personal control of environmental conditions. In general, it is not considered an efficient layout design for the workplace.

The results indicate that to effectively deal with the emergence of sick building syndrome and provide a healthy work environment, it is required to establish a balance between various parts in the workplace layout design including private office space, shared workplace, and/or open-plan according to the nature and type of work while considering the factors and parameters influenced by the layout design and environmental characteristics.