The relationship between workplace stressors with performance and mental fatigue of employees in open plan offices

Introduction: employees have a significant impact on the organization productivity and efficiency. On the other hand human performance may have effect by environmental conditions. The purpose of this research was to investigate the association between workplace environmental factors, mental fatigue, and worker performance in open plan offices. Material and Methods: This descriptive-analytical cross-sectional study was conducted with 85 office employees from an industrial company. Workplace physical factors such as noise, light, and temperature were assessed. Job performance (cognitive and Time) and Mental Fatigue Scale (MFS) questionnaire were evaluated. Results: Results: The workers' time performance had a significant and inverse correlation with the noise level in the workplace (r=0.251). In addition, the aforementioned performance exhibited a substantial link with the temperature of the working environment (at the 0.01 level) and an inverse correlation (r=0.317). The workers' time performance was not identified (p> 0.05). The association between both cognitive performance variables and the three workplace factors of noise, light, and temperature was not statically important (p>0.05). There was a considerable correlation between mental fatigue and noise intensity (r= 0.303), but there was no correlation between the light intensity and mental fatigue among the office employees in open plan offices. (p>0.05). Conclusion: The results of this research demonstrated that noise and temperature may be stressful and lead to an increase in the mental workload and mental fatigue of employees who work in open plan offices, hence impacting the work performance of them. Therefore, reducing workplace stressors (noise and temperature) and mental fatigue is essential to improve the performance of office employees.