Potential new workplace - no natural light. Thoughts?

[Rabidturnip]

I have the opportunity to move into a creative field that I love. I have always worked in buildings with lots of windows and natural light. The potential new place has none, think smallish dark workshop type environment. I genuinely don’t know if the lack of natural light will be an issue. Has anyone encountered this, or is anyone working in the same sort of environment? Does it affect you negatively? Any thoughts welcome, thank you.

I like light, airy rooms. I worked for a year or so in a basement office with no natural light. I really REALLY hated it. Took it to management to try and get the team moved. In winter it was especially distressing as it would be hardly light for the morning commute, and fully dark for the evening commute.

Tough call for you. I couldn't do it personally.

My old job was in a huge open office on the top floor with big windows and amazing sky scapes. This job I am in a pokey cell with a tiny high up window that looks out on to a brick wall.

It's definitely inferior but I don't really have a say in the matter so just have to put up with it.

Thanks Simple, this is what concerns me particularly as we are going into the darker nights. It ticks every single other box though. Not far from home, decent hours, decent money, low staff turnover, creative work. Gah! It’s a big thing to consider

You'll be there all week? No wfh at all?

It'd be a no from me if so

I did it for a few years, middle of an office block.
It was shit. You had no fresh air, no clue what was going on outside until you finished work. It was a beautifully landscaped estate but pointless as you couldn’t see it.
As a side point my eyes really deteriorated whilst working there.

That all said you do soon get used to it and just get on with it.

Would you have to be in the office 5 days a week? I had a three month placement in a windowless basement office and tbh it was really awful, very depressing. Another job had no direct line of sight to outdoors but it didn’t matter so much as there was daylight in the large open plan room.

Yes I have worked in a place with no natural light. It was fine, a bit weird leaving at the end of the day and realising it had been raining for example. Or you could always take a brisk walk at lunch time to get some fresh air.
If it's your dream job, don't let the lack of light stop you.

I work in an environment with no natural light. I take daily vitamin D and try to take my breaks outside.

We don't have any windows in the office I work in, well there's windows but not to outside. The actual building is quite light. I take vitamin d high dose year round

I used to work occasional crazy weeks in what was essentially a bunker. No natural light, often working 18+hrs a day (long story). After a few days of this, I'd start to get teary. I have SAD, and the lack of natural light was very quick to affect me.

I now have a SAD lamp which I use a LOT - it's the best thing I've bought in years. If I'd known they existed back then I would have taken one in to work. Maybe it would work for you too?

Have a look at Lumie.

I work in such a space, think performance and rehearsal spaces, workshops in the basement. Most working spaces don’t have any access to natural light.

It’s fine most of the time, although it does get a bit tiring when you have several consecutive weeks in winter when you come in at 8am and don’t leave until 11pm, so you don’t actually see any light at all for days on end.

Most of us like to take a short coffee or lunch break outside, we have huge open spaces in front of our buildings and a park nearby. It makes it bearable.

This is common in my workplace (hospital) we try to have staff in windowed offices who are there all day every day if possible - could you ask HR?

I had to work in a downstairs office with no natural light and I absolutely hated it. I suffer from SAD so having light is a big thing for me. Unfortunately, you can’t always pick and choose where you sit in an office though. That’s a tough decision, OP.

I worked in a windowless basement office. I could put pictures up so had pictures of trees. It was next to the kitchen and actually quite cosy in its way. I always went outside for breaks. I missed it when I went upstairs to a light-filled office which I shared with the company narcissist.

Not me but my DSis worked in a basement with no natural light she hated it. The whole team ended up with SAD lamps on their desks.

I hated an office I had in a previous role. No natural light or ventilation. Goodness knows how I would have coped given the current need for well ventilated spaces. It felt like working in a cave no matter what I did to it in terms of lighting and decor.

Definite no from me! Could trigger low moods.

I worked for years in bunker style secure rooms like cash offices and control rooms with heavy security.
It never really bothered me, I walked to work or parked far away if workplace was too far to walk all the way and went for a walk every lunchtime rain or shine.
I didn't mind it, I was always very busy and didn't give it much thought.

I did it for years, got used to it in the end but it took awhile.

Even sitting in the middle of a big open plan office well away from the windows I find it hard.

My first job was in a basement and I used to find winter rough. I'd get there in the dark and leave in the dark. I tend to get SAD over winter anyway but not quite as bad as I did in that job. I have a SAD lamp that I love and I've always wished I had one back then. I only use it in the mornings as I get ready. They're a bit bright for the office and are terribly unflattering if you happen to have some stray chin hairs

Don't. I worked for a very large employer about a decade ago, they had 12 buildings, one of which was a 1970s monstrosity with only these thin panel strip windows at ceiling height, you had no way to see out unless you stood on your desk, and the artificial lights had to be on all the time. I kid you not, that staff of that building made up 80% of the entire organisation's sick leave for all mental health purposes and on average worked for the organisation for 14 months, where the average was over 6 years. HR kept doing schemes specifically for those of us in the windowless building like free snacks in the break room and discounts at the supermarket etc to try to get us to stay and not transfer to another department or quit.

I work in an environment where I mainly have no natural light, it's generally artificial but bright, but I work such long busy shifts it doesn't bother me at all. I'm outside or in my bright light home if I'm not at work. My brain probably recognises the separation and can switch off work mode.
My concern for you is if you're in something creative you might benefit from natural light to see what ever you're creating.

When the department I worked for was moved into a room with no external windows, I made a point of singing “you are my sunshine, my only sunshine” every time my boss appeared.
It was pretty grim, but didn’t last for long.

If it's your dream job go for it, kit yourself out with a good SAD lamp from the start. The role may lead you on to somewhere similar with better working conditions.