From: David Gerard fun@thingy.apana.org.au
I vaguely recall workplace studies where changing *anything* increased productivity - it wasn't the new setting, it was the fact of change.
That would be the "Hawthorne effect:"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawthorne_effect
"The Hawthorne effect refers to improvements in productivity or quality which result not so much because of intended changes to working conditions, but mainly because the workers are aware of extra attention being paid to them."