DeAmicis Ergonomic Feng Shui

An Historical Perspective of the Office

To better understand how people and workspaces interact let’s look at the history of office work. Until the later part of the twentieth century people typically worked for the same company or within the same industry for their entire career. Education was not universally available and on the job training was the standard operating procedure. Managers assumed that no matter the quality of your education, unless you had worked someplace similar previously you arrived with little of any value in your head. So they would invest a great deal in your training with the implicit understanding that you were there for the long haul. With this kind of assured longevity work place designs were improved over time so you could accomplish tasks as efficiently as possible and then changed very little until newer technology arrived and had to be accommodated.

In the past work stations were dependent on sunlight, dim candles and oil lamps, so first and foremost buildings, work tables and desks are aligned to take advantage of the sunlight. Our admiration of the ‘corner office’ with its multi directional windows is a throwback to that tradition. Then electricity and artificial lighting transformed work spaces. Today, people can change jobs, careers, offices and technology at a dizzying rate of speed because of the portability of electronic devices, but you still need to understand the secrets of personal positioning if you want to work to your greatest potential.