Activities recognition and worker profiling in the intelligent office environment using a fuzzy finite state machine

Analysis of the office workers’ activities of daily working in an intelligent office environment can be used to optimize energy consumption and also office workers’ comfort. To achieve this end, it is essential to recognise office workers’ activities including short breaks, meetings and non-computer activities to allow an optimum control strategy to be implemented. In this paper, fuzzy finite state machines are used to model an office worker’s behaviour. The model will incorporate sensory data collected from the environment as the input and some pre-defined fuzzy states are used to develop the model. Experimental results are presented to illustrate the effectiveness of this approach. The activity models of different individual workers as inferred from the sensory devices can be distinguished. However, further investigation is required to create a more complete model

A randomised feasibility study to investigate the impact of education and the addition of prompts on the sedentary behaviour of office workers

Abstract Background Office workers have been identified as being at risk of accumulating high amounts of sedentary time in prolonged events during work hours, which has been associated with increased risk of a number of long-term health conditions. There is some evidence that providing advice to stand at regular intervals during the working day, and using computer-based prompts, can reduce sedentary behaviour in office workers. However, evidence of effectiveness, feasibility and acceptability for these types of intervention is currently limited. Methods A 2-arm, parallel group, cluster-randomised feasibility trial to assess the acceptability of prompts to break up sedentary behaviour was conducted with office workers in a commercial bank (n = 21). Participants were assigned to an education only group (EG) or prompt and education group (PG). Both groups received education on reducing and breaking up sitting at work, and the PG also received hourly prompts, delivered by Microsoft Outlook over 10 weeks, reminding them to stand. Objective measurements of sedentary behaviour were made using activPAL monitors worn at three time points: baseline, in the last 2 weeks of the intervention period and 12 weeks after the intervention. Focus groups were conducted to explore the acceptability of the intervention and the motivations and barriers to changing sedentary behaviour. Results Randomly generated, customised prompts, delivered by Microsoft Outlook, with messages about breaking up sitting, proved to be a feasible and acceptable way of delivering prompts to office workers. Participants in both groups reduced their sitting, but changes were not maintained at follow-up. The education session seemed to increase outcome expectations of the benefits of changing sedentary behaviour and promote self-regulation of behaviour in some participants. However, low self-efficacy and a desire to conform to cultural norms were barriers to changing behaviour. Conclusions Prompts delivered by Microsoft Outlook were a feasible, low-cost way of prompting office workers to break up their sedentary behaviour, although further research is needed to determine whether this has an additional impact on sedentary behaviour, to education alone. The role of cultural norms, and promoting self-efficacy, should be considered in the design of future interventions. Trial registration This study was registered retrospectively as a clinical trial on ClinicalTrials.gov (ID no. NCT02609282 ) on 23 March 2015

It\u27s Never Too Late: Office Workers at Bethlehem Steel

[Excerpt] Once jobs are contracted out, it\u27s an uphill battle to bring them back into a bargaining unit — even if the union has strong contract language. If the jobs never did belong to the union and there is no favorable language, then many reasonable people would not even put up a fight. But the office and technical (O&T) workers at Bethlehem Steel\u27s Burns Harbor Plant did, and so did their union, the United Steelworkers of America (USWA)

Sedentary Behavior of White Collar Office Workers-Review

Aim The aim of this systematic review is to evaluate the physical activity time (PAT) of white collar office workers in order to assess the levels of sedentary activity in an office environment. Analysing the office workers PAT will not only allow an insight into how an office based job could impact a person’s overall health and wellness status, but will also allow for the development of future office based inter ventions aimed at increasing the overall physical activity among white collar office workers. Methodology Using the PRISMA 2009 guidelines a literature review was conducted to assess the PAT of office workers and the typical sedentary nature of their work could affect their health. The review consisted of 8 peer reviewed studies, collected through the entry of 9 initial search terms relating to the physical activity, sedentariness and overall health of white collar workers into Discovery, PubMed and Google Scholar search engines. Results Results suggesting low physical activity time spent among white collar office workers with the average minutes spent sedentary on a working day mean(±SD), (529±75.3), minutes in light activity, (164.9±51.1) and vigorous activity time, (28.2±15.9). Low levels of physical activity were also found during non working days with the average sedentary time being mean (±SD), (460.1±63.2), minutes in light physical activity, (251.2±102.1), and moderate to vigorous physical activity time (MVPA) time, (17.9±29.3). Conclusion White collar office workers are spending greater amounts of work time in sedentary behavior. Value This paper provides a current literature review and analysis of the physical activity levels among office workers and sedentary behavior at work which could effects office workers health and well being. Keywords: sedentariness; Physical activity levels; Office workers and white collar worker

Homophily and Organizational Identification Towards Organizational Commitment and Organizational Justice Among Male and Female Office Workers in Iligan City

The study of identification within the organizational setting has highlighted various factors that may contribute significant changes, either positively or negatively, to the commitment and perception of fairness of employees. As workers, their jobs and relationship with their organization are also influenced by how they perceive people around them in terms of attitude and background. In connection, this study explored on the homophily and organizational identification towards the organizational commitment and organizational justice among male and female office workers in Iligan City. The respondents are male (n = 35) and female (n = 35) office workers coming from selected companies and institutions located in Iligan City. Based on the results and findings, there is a significant relationship between homophily and organizational identification; and organizational identification and organizational commitment among male office workers while there is a significant relationship between organizational identification and organizational justice among female office workers. Finally, there is a significant interaction between invested self-concept to organizational commitment of male office workers in Iligan City while there are significant interactions between background homophily to organizational justice; management connection to organizational justice; and coworker connection to organizational justice of female office workers in Iligan City

The Decline of Non-Competing Groups: Changes in the Premium to Education, 1890 to 1940

Between 1890 and the late 1920s the premium to high school education declined substantially for both men and women. In 1890 ordinary office workers, whose positions generally required a high school diploma, earned almost twice what production workers did. But by the late 1920s they earned about one and one-half times as much. The premium earned by female office workers, male office workers, and male office workers plus supervisors fell by about 30%. Several factors operated in tandem to narrow differentials to education. The supply of high school graduates relative to those without high school degrees increased by 16% from 1890 to 1910, but by 40% from 1910 to 1920 and by 50% from 1920 to 1930. Immigration restriction is another factor, but is dwarfed by the expansion of high schools; reduced immigrant flows explain just 1/8th of the relative supply increase of educated workers. The impact of rapidly increasing supplies of high school educated workers was reinforced by technological changes in the office that enabled the substitution of educated workers and machines for the exceptionally able. The premium to high school graduation, rather than declining further in the 1930s, levelled off as the demand for high school educated workers expanded in the manufacturing sector. We make comparisons between this historical period of narrowing wage differentials in the face of technological progress in the office and ours of widening differentials.