Employees who work in offices with plants happier, more productive, study finds - good quality air purifiers

A new study shows that people who work in the "green" office are actually surrounded by plants, happier than people who don't have a "thin" office with live leaves.
In the experiment, British researchers found that enriching a lean office with potted plants could increase productivity by 15%.
"In general, no matter what the environment is, if the environment is rich and the cost of plants is high, it is a better environment --
Craig Knight of the University of Exeter told Reuters Health channel that this is an effective way to enrich your space. ".
Knight, one of the authors of the study, said the idea behind doing so
What is called the lean office space is that, in addition to the items needed for work, cleaning up everything on the worksheet should reduce disruption, which should increase productivity.
But when you look at the idea of lean office space from a psychological, biological, or neuroscience perspective through any scientific perspective --
The idea is not at all, he said.
"There is no animal on Earth that thrives in the reclining space, whether it's ants or gorillas, and if you put anything in the reclining space, it gets hurt, Knight said.
On the other hand, Knight and his colleagues wrote in The Journal of Experimental Psychology: application that Greenfield is considered to improve workers' attention and productivity through some mechanisms.
Because past studies documenting this effect were limited, Knight's team began to compare the effects of lean office space and green office space in three different experiments in the UK and the Netherlands.
In the first study, 34 participants worked in a collective lean space without plants, 33 participants worked in front of their desks, and at least 2 plants could be seen directly at each desk.
The two work spaces are located on the same floor of an office building in central London.
Three weeks later, participants answered the questionnaire to measure their views on air quality, concentration, workplace satisfaction and productivity.
The researchers found that participants in the green office reported higher workplace satisfaction and better attention and perceived air quality compared to workers in lean space.
However, the authors note that the satisfaction of the lean workspace has also improved over the course of three weeks, probably because when participants in the lean office space walk through the green office space, they may be exposed to plants.
The second study was similar to the first one, but the green and sloping office space was located on different floors of the same building, and the workers stayed longer in the experimental environment.
21 participants were assigned to the lean office space and 60 participants were assigned to the green office.
All participants filled out the questionnaire at the beginning of the study, and two weeks later, again at 3. 5 months.
The researchers also analyzed the company productivity indicators of 48 participants.
Similar to the first study, people in green office space reported that workplace satisfaction was improved, but there were no participants in lean space.
The study has no obvious impact on productivity, but the authors say that productivity is difficult to measure in this office, where most of the work is done by talking to customers on the phone.
As a result, the third study focused on productivity, with 17 participants working in the lean office and 16 participants working in the green office.
The person in each office completed a specific task and the researchers timed it with a stopwatch.
Participants working in Greenfield completed the task faster than those working in lean space, and there were no errors.
The productivity of green offices has increased by about 15%.
The authors suggest that adding plants to the office allows employees to get more involved in their work physically, cognitively and emotionally.
Plants are good at cleaning the air, and their presence can make "huge psychological changes," Knight said ".
Charlie Hall, dean of horticulture science at Texas A & M University, said adding plants could improve the office in several ways.
"The first problem is related to simple oxygen production and removal of volatile organic compounds that sometimes exist in the workplace," Hall said . " He was not involved in the study.
He told Reuters Health channel that volatile organic compounds in the form of formaldehyde, benzene and hexane are usually released by paint, carpets and plants, helping to scrub them out of the air.
The second benefit, Hall said, is the plant's ability to remove carbon dioxide from the air.
"The third major benefit is that it is related to productivity, which stems from increased creativity in plants, and enhanced memory retention," he said . ".
Research shows that memory retention can increase by 20%, he added.
In addition to being a living air purifier, the plants are "fascinating and therefore do not need to work hard to get our attention," said Ruth Kester lananas, department of Landscape public health research and space planning in the Life Sciences of the University of Norway.
Raanaas said that because they were not tired, the natural experience in the office could restore our ability to direct our attention, and he was not involved in this new study.
Plants can also increase productivity because they are beautiful, she says.
"So it can help to meet the environment and well-being
She told Reuters Health Channel via email, "being looked after and felt by the leader, which is highly relevant to the health and productivity of the workplace . ".
Raanaas warns, but plants must be healthy in order for people to feel better around plants.
In an upcoming study, she and her colleagues found that hospitalized rehabilitation patients felt that the condition of the indoor plants reflected the health of the residents, and that the plants that looked unhealthy were "frustrating.