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. 2023 Dec 7:14:1214338.
doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1214338. eCollection 2023.

The outdoor office: a pilot study of environmental qualities, experiences of office workers, and work-related well-being

Carina Söderlund  1 , Luis Alfonso de la Fuente Suárez  2 , Annika Tillander  3 , Susanna Toivanen  4 , Katarina Bälter  4   5
Affiliations

The outdoor office: a pilot study of environmental qualities, experiences of office workers, and work-related well-being

Carina Söderlund et al. Front Psychol. .

Abstract

Outdoor office work is an emerging aspect of the concept of 'new ways of working', but only sparse data are available about the environmental qualities of the outdoor office space, experiences of office workers, and work-related well-being of outdoor office work. Here, we present an exploratory pilot study on well-being and outdoor office work in a public urban space. An outdoor office was set up in the courtyard of a university campus, and the participants (n = 16) conducted office work outdoors for 30 min and thereafter participated in an eye-tracking session for 11-15 min (n = 8) and subsequently filled out surveys (n = 16). The eye tracker allowed the discovery of natural and built elements in the outdoor environment that caught the participants' visual attention, whereas the surveys assessed aspects of their subjective experiences of the outdoor office space (its visual and spatial qualities) and the work there. The results are presented as network graphs where correlations are shown regarding different aspects of office work outdoors. The results indicate that outdoor office work in a public urban space may promote work-related well-being in terms of positive outdoor office space experiences. Based on the findings, a preliminary set of outdoor office qualities is proposed. Those qualities relate to the legibility and imageability of the outdoor office space, its focal points, and depth/spaciousness, in addition to attributes of usability and environmental richness, including if the outdoor office space affords natural contact and supports activities, in addition to social and individual interactions and relations.

Keywords: environmental experiences/perceptions; new ways of working; outdoor office space; outdoor office work; visual and spatial information; work-related well being.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Explored outdoor office space and its areas of interest.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Ten identified indexes from survey data (n = 16), four indexes based on statements in FPA, three indexes with PNA statements, and one index each for the groups VSO, RAS, and CEW.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Network graph based on survey data (n = 16).
Figure 4
Figure 4
Network graph based on survey data and eye-tracking data (n = 8). The eye-tracking metrics are in bold text: vegetation/built, light/shadow, walls/others, far/close, and environment/workstation.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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