www.cracked.com/article_18654_6-ways-your-office-literally-killing-you.html
Kathy Benjamin Jul 26, 2010 878,513 views article image Statistically, most of you either work in an office, or will at some point. Would you believe us if we told you it's the office itself that's making you sick?
The thing is, once upon a time office buildings were built to let in a certain amount of fresh air. Since, you know, it's widely thought that air is something you need to live.
But then the 1970s hit and suddenly energy conservation was all the rage. That's why the windows in your office probably don't open, and why every crack and gap is sealed so tight you could probably set the building on the ocean floor and everybody would stay dry. The result is buildings that are great about keeping their temperature stable, but horrible at recycling air.
If you're wondering how OSHA and other agencies let this go on, it's because all of their rules were written for shops that work with dangerous, smelly chemicals, rather than offices. There are no real standards to protect the cubicle-dwellers. As a result, for years office workers were coming down with strange symptoms no one could pin down to any actual illness. In 1984 no less than the freaking World Health Organization determined that at least 30 percent of buildings in the world were subject to "excessive complaints" about air quality. The lot that a whole bunch of cars drove into this morning. Now all that lovely, poisonous carbon monoxide they produced is slowly making its way into your lungs.
Black mold releases Volatile Organic Chemicals which are toxic to humans. Thousands of people suffer from black mold poisoning every year. Symptoms range from coughing to memory loss to infertility. Again, if you find it in your house, you can scrub it with Pine-Sol and open up a window. If it's growing within the walls of your air-tight office?
That's ozone and the EPA warns that even inhaling small amounts can lead to "chest pain, coughing, shortness of breath and throat irritation." Don't worry though, because the manufactures know this and your ancient photocopier was built with a filter to deal with the ozone it produces and... So all that deadly ozone is slowly filling up the copy room.
And just because they are tiny doesn't mean there aren't dangerous. Their size means they can make their way into the deepest parts of the lungs and can even enter the blood stream, possibly increasing your chances of cancer and heart disease.
A study found that one office had five times as many particles in the air during work hours as opposed to off hours. The worst case: You might as well be working in a coal mine.
That's basically any time artificial light is brighter than it needs to be to do a given task. And if your task is sitting at a computer all day, the chances are you don't need your surroundings to be brighter than your computer screen or, say, the surface of the sun.
If you come home from work most days with a headache it might not be due to the stench of microwave popcorn and the lite rock on the muzak. Almost all office buildings built before the mid-1990s are designed to be too bright, possibly because architects wanted to make sure people could really see the exquisite detail on your piano key necktie.
The use of florescent lights and/or over-illumination can cause health concerns including headache, fatigue, stress, anxiety, cardiovascular disease and, wait for it, erectile dysfunction. That's right, not only could those annoying lights that eventually start blinking and buzzing yet maintenance never fucking changes them no matter how many times you ask give you a heart attack, but they could also affect your performance in bed. Which will in turn add to your stress level making it a vicious, deadly cycle. Apparently this happens because our bodies are designed to respond to sunlight. Anything brighter than that our bodies don't really understand so for some reason they decide to react as if we're in total darkness. This in turn messes up our natural sleep cycle, leading to a myriad of health problems.
Submit Comment 319 Comments This explains a lot, really. I started working this office job a little over two years ago, and I started losing my energy and gaining weight, even though my diet hasn't changed. And I am BORED AS HELL, because my job isn't challenging or interesting.
Instead, I get to work in a chemistry lab, with nothing to worry about except concentrated acids, massive amounts of carcinogens, cryogens, and the occasional explosion. And since I work in an academic lab, I'm not protected by OSHA. But I stand in front of a fume hood all day, so at least I don't have to worry about the dangers of SITTING.
AlienAutista By far, I have seen some of the worst injuries occur when people are working as RA's in chem labs. Turns out a shoestring budget is not conducive to safety...
where I live, sun is always bright and give me headaches when I'm not wearing sunglasses. There are fake people everywhere I go, trying everytime to show how happy the are. And I prefer to work sitting down, standing up whenever I want.
Iamnotthatguy For the record, the whole overillumination thing actually comes from a jackass belief they used to teach in management that bright lights keep people working and alert.
Sniper_Scopes Is it just me, or does the photo under number 2 captioned "these guys aren't sleeping" look like that scene from Serenity when the office workers are all just dead on their desks?
i work for a college facility, so now that the students are on a break, we have nothing to do all day, so its "sitting at the office all day" + boredom. also, that pic of the badgers made me start singing "badger badger mushroom mushroom".
it's a good thing for my health that I blister, bruise, sprain and generally ruin my feet during work? I wonder if those effects will last for when I eventually cripple myself.
jokerswild00 They have done studies showing that fake positivity is worse for your mental health than genuine negativity. unfortunately all that research apparently landed under in a desk-drawer somewhere. i have yet to meet a single mental-health professional (and i've met quit a few) who understood any of the things that fall under 'common sense' for the rest of the world. they are at a total loss when a client does not like the 'you *HAVE* to tell something, anything, positive every time you talk to a client'-approach they have spend years perfecting in their role-playing exercises. i have literally screamed at those people how much i hated their non-responsiveness and their lack of help with the problem at hand, only to get back some compliment on how nice it is that i am not letting my fists speak (i am still opposed to all kinds of violence, but i fully understand why someone would want to hit their therapist. at least in cases where chosing to simply walk away from 'therapy' is not an option). and yes, getting those fake compliments about how nice my hair is or whatever they can think up in 5 seconds, does way more damage to my self-esteem then those times all the other kids in my class spend the first 5 minutes of every break telling me how ugly i was back when i was 10 years old. nobody likes people who are all grumpy all day long, who are way to 'honest' about the way you look in your new expensive dress. for whom 'honesty' is just an excuse to act like a total dick. what i have a problem with are the people who will strain to find a compliment, *any* compliment, no matter how far fetched, because they are stupid enough to believe that positive-thinking-BS.
I give people a choice when they ask my opinion, regardless of whether my answers match I ask if they want to know what I think or if they want me to tell them what they want to hear. I won't push my opinion on somebody if they don't want it, but if they genuinely want to know what I think then I reserve the right to tell them their fancy new dress makes them look like s**t. And yeah, every time I meet somebody who does the whole "happy to talk to you" or whatever when they're paid to help you or answer the phone and interact with you, I make it a point to tell them to shut the hell up and just get on with it; even if they han...
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