Concurrents – Environmental Psychology: Older and Tubbier

by Sally Augustin, Ph.D. | May 8th, 2017

The workforce is getting more diverse physically. More people are choosing to stay in the workforce past usual retirement age, and an ever increasing percentage of the population weighs more than it should. The growing physical diversity among workers is worthy of note by workplace designers and should prompt a re-evaluation of office design practices similar to the one that followed the introduction of the Americans with Disabilities Act almost three decades ago. On March 2, 2017, in a New York Times article titled, “Workers are Working Longer – and Better,” John Hanc reported that “According to the Pew Research Center, in the year 2000, just under 13 percent of Americans 65 and over reported being employed full or part time. By May 2016, that figure had jumped to 18.8 percent…Over the next five years, that number is expected to increase to 32 percent…a 2015 study by the Transamerica Center …