Sick office? No, we’re not making this up! According to the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), “the term “sick building syndrome” (SBS) is used to describe situations in which building occupants experience acute health and comfort effects that appear to be linked to time spent in a building, but no specific illness or cause can be identified.”

In other words, if just being at your office causes you headaches, nausea, irritated eyes, nose or throat, and other unpleasant symptoms even though you’re otherwise healthy and getting along nicely with everyone, you might be working in a sick office!

It’s not always easy to identify the main offenders that are making your office building sick. Inadequate ventilation, including heating, ventilating, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems that fail to effectively distribute air throughout the building are certainly among the main suspects.

Your office might also be full of chemical contaminants from inside the building that you can’t necessarily smell. Carpeting, adhesives, copy machines, cleaning products are all known to emit harmful volatile organic compounds (VOCs). That’s why our Cubes keep a keen sensor on your VOC levels, not just CO2, to determine air quality.

Biological contaminants such as bacteria, molds, pollen and viruses will feel right at home at your office if you’re not mindful of your humidity levels. Want to get rid of that pesky flu virus? Just keep the humidity above 43%. On the other hand, you don’t want to turn you office into a warm, humid rain forest unless you’re trying to grow mold (which you probably don’t if that’s in your job description). That means keeping the humidity below 60%.

Of course, inadequate temperature and lightning can also contribute to a sick office that won’t do your productivity any good.

And what can you do if you find yourself stuck in a sick office?

Don’t worry, quitting your job or working from home aren’t the only two options. The most effective approach is to identify and remove or modify the sources of pollution. That means regular cleaning and replacement of HVAC filters; repainting the office while nobody is working there; storing paints and other chemicals in well ventilated areas; cleaning or getting rid of old carpeting etc. Once you’ve successfully dealt with the sources of indoor air pollution, you can also try increasing ventilation rates and air cleaning.

The bottom line is this: if you want to stay healthy and productive at work, it’s very important to keep an eye (or a few smart sensors) on the health of your office environment.

Guess which startup is among the ones that Robert Scoble (@scobleizer), the world’s biggest startup enthusiast, finds most exciting at the moment? It’s CubeSensors!

In an interview at this year’s TNW Conference in Amsterdam, Robert mentioned being excited about receiving his pack of CubeSensors to keep track of the air quality in his home. Well, Robert, we’re working hard at making sure the Cubes move in with you this summer. And the good news is that we’ll also be providing an API that can potentially be used to connect the data from the Cubes with Google Glass apps and other cool wearable gadgets you’ll own.

Check out Robert’s excitingly geeky interview about Google Glass below. Watch out for his mention of CubeSensors as a startup worth keeping an eye (or sensor) on at the 5:18 mark.

Thanks again, Robert, for your support since our announcement at the Launch Festival!

And if you, dear reader, also like the idea of getting to know the air quality of the indoor spaces where you spend almost 90% of your time, don’t forget that we’re still taking preorders for the second batch of CubeSensors, which will be shipping in autumn.

If you live in the city or work in a busy office, escaping noise is almost impossible. But how much noise is too much and why is it that some people just can’t work without background noise? The answer actually depends on what kind of task you’re trying to accomplish!

Quiet for focus, some distractions for creativity

Are you trying to read an important paper or practicing for a presentation, but keep losing focus? Check your noise levels. According to some studies, you can improve recall and reading, attention and memory by reducing your background noise.

However, if you’re trying to come up with creative solutions, a moderate level of ambient noise, around 70 dB, might actually give you an extra nudge. The mild distraction will keep your mind open and alert to fresh ideas. That is probably why some enjoy working in busy coffee shops. If you’re stuck in a quiet office, you can always try to emulate that bustling creative atmosphere with websites like Coffitivity or Rainy Cafe. Just don’t go over 85 dB or you’ll not only be too distracted to be creative or productive, but might even risk hearing damage.

While an occasional break at the local coffee shop can help you find a creative solution, it’s probably best not to make working in noisy environments a habit. Research shows that ambient noise can make us more stressed, which certainly won’t lower your high blood pressure or make that migraine disappear. What’s worse, it might even make you less willing to cooperate!

Sharing noise is not caring!

If you’re sharing your working space with other people, be mindful of individual preferences. If you’re used to working with music and your coworkers aren’t, or if the music you love sounds like noise to them, use headphones at reasonable sound levels. And avoid making personal phone calls that will make everyone around you lose their focus. When we hear just one side of a conversation, our brains instinctively try to fill in the gaps, making it more difficult to stay on task we are supposed to be doing.

Finally, keep in mind that it’s not just other people that make an office noisy. If your computers are getting noisier that usual, it might be time to remove all that dust from the fans or use the noise as an excuse for an upgrade. If you’ve got loud servers, printers, copiers and what not in your vicinity, you might want to consider moving them into a corner from which they won’t be stressing out the entire office.

The Cubes are happy to lend an ear

When it comes to noise, there is no single answer that will fit everyone. Which is why it can be helpful to have an impartial referee, like our very own CubeSensors. For instance, the Cubes are now telling me our office is perfect for focused tasks at relatively quiet 48 dB. And I can rest assured they’ll let me know if it gets too noisy to be productive or if we’ll need to turn the music down later on at the office party.