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Dear list, Sharon's email reminds us not to underestimate the effects of a room change. On several occasions, I have investigated environmental conditions and found, behind the complaint, an enforced room change. On once occasion, it happened while the person was on leave: they returned to the different space without any notice. It is only human to become attached to a place and, if the rest of someone's life is in turmoil, then the workplace office might be the one familiar reference point. Our space says so much to us about who we are. It can be part of our existence. Removing the space can be a threat to the notion of that existence. There is a concept in Transactional Analysis (anyone here old enough to recall TA?) called discounting which covers this very well: it is when one person in the transaction signals to the other that they are not taken into account. It was put as starkly to me as "it is like shooting that person". If you are feeling particularly philosophical and post-mdernist, you might read Foucault's "Technologies of Self" where he talks of how the knowing and the caring of self (maintaining one's space might be seen as part of that caring) react iteratively in the continual remaking of self. So, take the person's space away and - well - the effect is inevitable. All office changes should be really well planned and involve the affected person. Kevin P.S. The extreme of office changes is, of course, 'hot-desking' but it is interesting how 'hot-desking' really plays out. I have come across instances where spaces are claimed, territory marked, and a particular desk becomes that person's space: hot desks get cooled down. -----Original Message----- From: [log in to unmask] on behalf of Naylor, Sharon [HMPS] Sent: Wed 02/06/2010 16:52 To: [log in to unmask] Subject: Re: [OCC-HEALTH] HRT Therapy and temperature control I once had a case where 1 individual in a shared office complained of various environmental factors that apparently affected his health - temperature, the lights (apparently they burned his head) , glare off the monitor caused him to have double vision, chairs gave him back ache, couldnt hear the phones etc etc. When the office was adjusted for his "needs" no one else could see what they were doing and were very uncomfortable so they gave him an office on his own(not my advice actually) . Turns out that he had been moved from a single office into a shared one in a management reshuffle and he felt muchly miffed by this. In he went to his singleton office with exctly the same lights etc as the shared one and all his symptoms disappeared overnight, they gave him a week in there and then told him everything was the same and moved him out again. ________________________________ This email is intended solely for the addressee. It may contain private and confidential information. If you are not the intended addressee, please take no action based on it nor show a copy to anyone. In this case, please reply to this email to highlight the error. Opinions and information in this email that do not relate to the official business of Nottingham Trent University shall be understood as neither given nor endorsed by the University. Nottingham Trent University has taken steps to ensure that this email and any attachments are virus-free, but we do advise that the recipient should check that the email and its attachments are actually virus free. This is in keeping with good computing practice. ******************************** Please remove this footer before replying. OCC-HEALTH ARCHIVES: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/occ-health.html CONFERENCES AND STUDY DAYS: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/filearea.cgi?LMGT1=OCC-HEALTH