Working in office bad for your brain?

London: Working in a posh open plan office? Well, it may be bad for your brain and can also make you less productive, scientists say.

A new study has claimed that the hustle and bustle of modern offices can lead to a 32 per cent drop in workers well being and reduce their productivity by 15 per cent.

Study researchers found that open plan offices create unwanted activity in the brains of workers that can get in the way of them doing the task at hand.

They also claimed that having a clean and sterile desk can also leave employees with smaller brains, the Daily Telegraph reported.

Study researcher Dr Jack Lewis said: "Open plan offices were designed with the idea that people can move around and interact freely to promote creative thinking and better problem solving.

"But it doesn't work like that. If you are just getting into some work and a phone goes off in the back ground it ruins what you are concentrating on. Even though you are not aware at the time, the brain responds to distractions."

Modern offices which refuse to allow personal decorations on walls or desks may also not be helping employees, said Dr Craig Knight, a psychologist at Exeter University.

Allowing employees to personalise their working area could improve their performance in the office, he said.

"Companies like the idea of giving their employees a lean space to work in as it is uniform and without unnecessary distractions," he said.

"In the experiments we have run, however, employees respond better in spaces that have been enriched with pictures and plants. If they have been allowed to enrich the space themselves with their own things it can increase their wellbeing by 32 percent and their productivity by 15 per cent.

"It is because they are able to engage with their surroundings, feel more comfortable and so concentrate."

The new findings are revealed in a TV show titled 'The Secret Life of Buildings' to be aired on Channel 4 on Monday. Professor Fred Gage, from the laboratory of genetics at the Salk Institute in San Diego, California, has also conducted studies by comparing the brains of mice kept in bare, clean cages with those kept in more stimulating environments.

He said "In the period of a month we saw the brains of the mice kept in stimulant environments increase in volume by15 per cent. The area is highly enriched with blood vessels and we see new neurons being born.

"If we can extrapolate that to humans then it shows that having a stimulating environment can optimise our performance and abilities."