Well at Work

July 17, 2023
In this sensible outing, Sternberg (Healing Spaces), an architecture and medicine professor at the University of Arizona, offers guidance on making workspaces—either at home or the office—more comfortable and conducive to productivity by attending to the “seven domains of integrative health”: “stress and resilience,” movement, sleep, relationships, environment (“what you see and breathe”), nutrition, and spirituality. She contends that putting on quiet background music can make workplaces more relaxing, citing a study that found workers were most stressed in either loud or extremely quiet settings. Noting research showing that access to sunlight in the morning improves sleep quality and overall mood, Sternberg recommends workers sit near windows or else buy an LED sun lamp for their desk. The author highlights companies that have taken creative approaches to enhancing well-being through office design, writing that Google’s Mountain View campus features multiple fitness centers to encourage exercise, which has been shown to stimulate creative thinking. The recommendations are bolstered by illuminating research, and Sternberg keeps a welcome emphasis on practicality (for workers whose offices don’t feature a fitness center, she suggests that just getting up and moving around once per hour can be beneficial). Equally applicable to home and corporate office spaces, this valuable guide has much to offer.

September 1, 2023
Staying healthy and staying well are two distinct matters according to Sternberg, an internationally recognized design and health and mind-body-science pioneer. She examines the many environmental aspects that affect focus, productivity, and stress levels in the workplace. Exploring workplace design, whether in the office or at home, means understanding concepts like how lighting and noise affect alertness, how to create a setup to be more active, and how nutrition and sleep impact workplace wellness. She guides readers to focus on the five senses and implement ideas like working near a window and adding fragrant plants and water features to the space. Additionally, Sternberg taps into her network of scientists, physicians, and architects, who give insights on making workplaces beneficial to well-being and exploring how artificial intelligence could help plan optimal environments for all. These futuristic ideas range from a metaverse with real-time environmental monitoring to enhanced 3-D meetings. Readers will find this book easy to read, backed by solid research, and full of relatable anecdotes with plenty of takeaways for creating an optimal workspace.

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June 10, 2024

Sternberg's (medicine, psychology, and architecture, landscape architecture & planning, Univ. of Arizona; The Balance Within) fellow integrative-medicine practitioner, Andrew Weil, lauds her expertise in demonstrating how environments can be used to optimize health. This book delves into her research of workspaces. By sharing her research, Sternberg leads readers to think about workspaces--to understand what is and isn't working, and to take steps to address these issues to create a healthier environment. The COVID pandemic forced a rethinking and reshaping of the environment in which work takes place and has affected the mental and physical well-being of workers; Sternberg dedicates the last third of the book to these topics. At times the author's enthusiasm and deep knowledge leads her to wandering. However, the research is often fascinating (e.g., people are less stressed when sound is between 40 and 50 decibels--not too quiet and not too loud), and the tips are useful (download a free sound-level app from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health). VERDICT Many of Sternberg's examples and anecdotes focus on buildings in Arizona and around Washington, DC, so this title could be particularly interesting for libraries located in these areas.--Rita Baladad

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