How Blinds Can Improve Productivity in the Workplace
The ability of employees to focus on their tasks equates to high productivity levels in the workplace. That is why it is important to pay attention to office features such as workspace layout, room colour, desks, and ambient sounds.
The office design should allow for efficient interaction among the staff. The wall colours should be bright and cheery. The chairs and tables should be ergonomic. And the noise should be few to none. Two factors that are rarely thought about are lighting and temperature. An under-lit workplace results in increased incidence of headaches and eye strain. An office that’s too hot or too cold affects metabolic rate and may cause fatigue and drowsiness. A way to control how much light and temperature there is in the workplace is to install window blinds. Blinds can control the amount of light and heat in a room. This means the people inside can adjust the blinds according to their preferences.
Blinds are a type of window covering. Most blinds have slats suspended using strings and raised and drawn by pulling a cord and a wand for tilting the slats when the blinds are completely drawn. Here are popular choices for window blinds:
Vertical blinds
They consist of PVC slats hung from runners that slide along a headrail track.
Venetian blinds
They consist of vertical slats that can either be real wood or faux wood. These slats are then strung together with tapes or ribbons made of cloth.
Mini blinds
They operate like Venetian blinds but use thin small slats made of aluminium that are 1 or 2 inches wide.
Micro blinds
They are an even smaller version of the mini blinds that use ½ inch wide aluminium slats.
Using Blinds to Balance Lighting and Temperature in the Office.
Even offices already equipped with modern lighting fixtures must still allow natural lighting in the work area. Studies have shown that artificial light messes up the normal production of the stress hormone cortisol. This results in mood swings, muscle weakness and impaired cognitive function. The same study concluded that non-exposure to natural light reduces energy levels and attention span.
At the other extreme, too much natural light results to screen glare, and eye fatigue. Symptoms of eye fatigue include difficulty focusing, teary eyes, blurry vision, and pain in the neck, shoulders or back. Window blinds let the employees control the amount of light they need at different hours of the day. Too much heat or too much cold makes employees feel tired and less energetic. Tiredness can lead to reduced productivity and even increased the risk of accidents.
At first, you might have looked at windows blinds as a minor part of the office interior decoration. Now that you learned how beneficial blinds are to the workplace, you can start to consider adding more of them in your workplace.