Time to rethink your office space? A new study suggests our productivity and well being are connected with the space we work in

Where we work has a big influence on how we work — our productivity and our fundamental well-being. This means we should all pay attention to the design of our office space, whether in our home or a more traditional setting. 

“As personality psychologists, we know that people are very different, and that they need different things to be well and do well,” said Cal State East Bay Assistant Professor of Psychology Erica Baranski and her co-author on a study, University of Arizona Professor of Psychology Matthias Mehl. “At the same time, as it is estimated that we spend up to 90 percent of our time indoors, much of it in the workplace, it is imperative that those spaces fit individual needs. Yet historically, organizations have treated all people as being and needing the same space—a one-size-fits-all model.”

The new study found that focus is better for people who score high on extraversion scales, and that they will thrive and often are happier, in open seating arrangements. At the same time, individuals who are less outgoing and tend to worry more, fare better and are happier and more focused in private offices. 

“Our work illuminates the importance of considering both the individual’s personality and their environment in predicting important behavioral and mood outcomes, such as how happy a person is and how well a person is able to work,” said Matthias Mehl. “In this vein, we demonstrate that when employers design and allocate workspaces, it may be beneficial to take an employee-centered approach.” According to the study’s Principal Investigator, Dr. Esther Sternberg, Research Director, Andrew Weil Center for Integrative Medicine and Director, University of Arizona Institute on Place, Wellbeing & Performance, “This suggests that the workspace should be designed to fit the worker, and not the other way around.”

The United States General Services Administration funded the Wellbuilt for Wellbeing research project led by the University of Arizona. More than 270 office workers in four federal buildings wore health tracking sensors and were sent questions to their smartphones asking how they felt in the moment. The team then linked various aspects of their health, including activity, stress, sleep, behavior, focus and mood, to different aspects of the environment in which they worked, including workstation type. Typically, how employees are assigned to different types of work spaces has little to do with who they are and in what environment they thrive.

“In order to recruit and retain workers — their most valuable asset — organizations need to focus on the wellbeing of their workforce front and center,” said Sternberg. “This study provides quantitative data for the importance of taking individual personality into account to optimize individual wellbeing in the workplace.”

Although the study data was collected pre-pandemic, the issue has only become more relevant as the U.S. grapples with the Great Resignation. Researchers say this increased desire for variance and flexibility in workspaces is here to stay, and it is here for scientists to figure out.