For sure. But then again I just got a headphone.
Noisy Coworkers And Other Sounds Are A Distraction In Workplace
51–60 of 256 posts
Re: Noisy Coworkers And Other Sounds Are A Distraction In Workplace
#52Coworker who is extremely loud on the phone. I get 0 work done when she's on the phone. She's so loud I can't hear people when I'm on the phone. We have an "open door" policy at work so if I close my door to my own office it looks weird. If I tell her she's being too loud I look like an asshole. We're moving to a new building and I'm going to be on a different floor than her and I can't wait. So many years of listeni…
> We have an "open door" policy at work so if I close my door to my own office it looks weird.
At least you have a door.
That said, I solved the problem of talking cow-orkers by ordering a second pair of the same high-quality gaming headphones I use at home. I turn on some music (or pink noise), and I can no longer hear anyone.
Re: Noisy Coworkers And Other Sounds Are A Distraction In Workplace
#53honestly, that's why I'm hardly ever in the office. there's someone there who's noise profile is utterly unfilterable. they fiddle with things, drop things, fidget, cough, snort phlegm up their nose, subvocalize, and generally emit an air of restlessness. nice person though.
> they fiddle with things, drop things, fidget, cough, snort phlegm up their nose, subvocalize, and generally emit an air of restlessness
That list is entirely too familiar. Honestly, do you work in my office? Add to that: dictates constantly to their mobile phone using voice-to-text function (things like "Honey - period - I need you to pick up the kids tonight - period - Did you remember to take out the garbage - question mark - period") and has bouts of fist pounding on the desk when things don't go their way (such as when email takes more than 15 seconds to open) - and I will start looking for you here.
Re: Noisy Coworkers And Other Sounds Are A Distraction In Workplace
#54i've noticed that if coworkers tend exhibit a high level of emotion in their voices during their conversations, that's very distracting -- e.g., some people seem to just have a pattern of vocalizing stress or confusion in their tone of speech, either to each other, or on the phone etc.
it took me a long time to identify exactly what was bugging me (besides it obviously being noisy), but then it dawned on me, and now i pay close attention to it -- being able to cateogrize it, and then compartmentalize it away, helps a lot i think.
moving to an off-site coffee shop on occasion has made all the difference, despite being an equal or greater amount of noise.
still would prefer an office, obviously.
Re: Noisy Coworkers And Other Sounds Are A Distraction In Workplace
#55I will never understand why this is such a point of contention on HN and why it isn't accepted that some people legitimately prefer open office plans while others prefer quiet. And even more practical and intelligent would be to offer different kinds of spaces so that people can choose where to work based on a particular mood. But instead we just get weekly complaints about open offices. I'm probably more productive…
Probably because people do not get to choose. The end result can have awful consequences for many people in various aspects of their life that should not be affected by their work environment, the most benign of which is demoralization.
There are plenty of people here who are the ones who make the choice for others. If you're a late hire into an established startup or company, there are many things that you don't get to choose.
Re: Noisy Coworkers And Other Sounds Are A Distraction In Workplace
#56An anecdote for those who hoped they'd find suggestions in the comments: I ended up buying some over-the-head earmuff headphones aimed at construction workers (I think with a 25dB noise reduction rating). I put in ear plugs, then the headphones, and play some light music; even relatively loud and nearby conversations drop away pretty quickly. (Ordinary "noise cancelling" headphones aren't intended to block the sound…
At the risk of seeming spammy since I just replied to another person on here, you should check out the Here One by Doppler Labs. I had the first version and it's incredible – albeit mostly a novelty device. They're taking preorders for the new one right now and it seems to no longer be a novelty device at all...
Also since you specifically mentioned comfort, these are just little wireless earbuds that feel comfy enough that you forget you're wearing them, and then you forget how loud the world is when you take them out.
My other comment for details: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12800201
Re: Noisy Coworkers And Other Sounds Are A Distraction In Workplace
#57Earlier quoted context omitted.
As a graduate student, I was lucky to have an advisor that let me work on research from anywhere as long as I was getting stuff done. I tried to work in the office a few times, and a couple loud people made it almost impossible for me to accomplish anything. Coffee shops, despite the presence of ambient conversations, were much more effective for me. I haven't quite figured out the difference between coffee shop nois…
> I haven't quite figured out the difference between coffee shop noise and office noise — I just know that I can tune the former out, while the latter makes it difficult to concentrate. Coffee shop noise is irrelevant, office noise might be relevant. You automatically pay attention even if you don't want to. For me, noise cancelling headphones are a necessity. Impossible to get anything done otherwise.
Exactly this.
What finally made me buy a good set of headphones for work was a cow-orker that would regularly come to my office to talk to a colleague about some project. Nothing to do with my work, but the words he used made me involuntarily tune in to the conversation every 10 seconds, just because it sounded relevant.
Re: Noisy Coworkers And Other Sounds Are A Distraction In Workplace
#58I will never understand why this is such a point of contention on HN and why it isn't accepted that some people legitimately prefer open office plans while others prefer quiet. And even more practical and intelligent would be to offer different kinds of spaces so that people can choose where to work based on a particular mood. But instead we just get weekly complaints about open offices. I'm probably more productive…
Probably because people do not get to choose. The end result can have awful consequences for many people in various aspects of their life that should not be affected by their work environment, the most benign of which is demoralization.
Yep. Its also asymmetric- people who like open plans can be 100% productive in an office, but that doesn't apply the other way around. Also, IME the biggest proponents of open plans among engineers tend to be people who WANT to pester their coworkers all the time (either because they get bored and want to chat all the time, or because they have a hair trigger for asking other people for help rather than just looking stuff up in documentation).
Re: Noisy Coworkers And Other Sounds Are A Distraction In Workplace
#59Coworker who is extremely loud on the phone. I get 0 work done when she's on the phone. She's so loud I can't hear people when I'm on the phone. We have an "open door" policy at work so if I close my door to my own office it looks weird. If I tell her she's being too loud I look like an asshole. We're moving to a new building and I'm going to be on a different floor than her and I can't wait. So many years of listeni…
We recently had an office re-org (in the physical "take your shit to different desks" sense). Our manager lobbied hard, and succeeded, to move our relatively small engineering team and stick us in the corner, away from sales folks, etc., who are on the phone all day - and especially from the one person who was frequently on the phone and loud enough to go through my big over-the-ear headphones.
Right now, I sit in between an R+D group working on experimental prototypes and a PM group whose members often (loudly) explain our products to customers during sales calls. This is after our previous move, about 8 months ago. For the last several months, my manager has been lobbying to move my group somewhere with a more reasonable noise level.
At the moment, a couple members of the R+D team are discussing a new database schema, and I'm wishing that another manager hadn't swooped in an taken the place we were planning to move to a week ago.
Re: Noisy Coworkers And Other Sounds Are A Distraction In Workplace
#60I'm not really sure where the issue is?
I work in a noisy office. The only reason why my productivity goes down is because I'm nosy as shit and have all these opinions I want to share.