In related news, water is wet.
Unstructured space is terrible for working and terrible for collaboration.
Noisy Coworkers And Other Sounds Are A Distraction In Workplace
141–150 of 256 posts
Re: Noisy Coworkers And Other Sounds Are A Distraction In Workplace
#142The problem with open office plans is that it takes just one noisy person to spoil it for everybody. If managed carefully and actively, they can work -- it just takes an manager willing to correct bad behavior or send sick people home. Where I work, I have a budding tupperware percussionist, three imminent victims of whooping cough, some parents managing high-maintenance offspring over cell phones, and one guy who co…
Not to mention half the office on hissing, squeaky teleconferencing headsets with multiply-delayed echoes. And the folks who graze nonstop at work.
Empty rooms are your friends. And Metallica when no rooms available, or some good construction hearing protectors, they don't kill all sounds, but deaden a fair amount.
Re: Noisy Coworkers And Other Sounds Are A Distraction In Workplace
#143> "In general, if it's coming from another person, it's much more disturbing than when it's coming from a machine," he says
Huh. My most pet peeve in the open office floorplan was always the coworkers whose phone — not on vibrate — would start ringing. They'd look at it, decide not to answer it, and proceed to just let it ring out loud until it hits voicemail. Just… why? And attempts to educate the owner on how to silence a ringer¹ just seem to go unheeded.
One commenter I read once noted the concept of "cell phone time out" — a basket with a blanket for ringing phones with no owner to be found.
My current office boasted "great amounts of natural light"; I have exactly zero paths to natural light from my desk. (The upshot of this is that we're in a corner that largely isolates us from the noise.) While I lean towards cubes (simply for the affordance of quiet and disease prevention), do they not mean that people in them get absolutely no natural light? (Not that I am right now myself, but it crosses my mind.)
We recently lost a manweek to a cold that just ran absolutely rampant through the desks. Perhaps the sad thing is that I feel that was pretty good, and could have been much worse. (Perhaps because I seem to have dodged it myself.)
Our new office came with less conference rooms and quiet areas. Less actual useable space per person.
¹And just in case you're wondering: squeezing nearly any cell phone's power/volume buttons will silence the ringer during an incoming call. It doesn't cancel the call or voicemail it: the other end is still listening to a ringtone. You can still pick up with call with the on-screen UI if you want. (At least until it truly goes to voicemail, which happens after the normal delay.) You can even do this with the phone in the pocket pretty easily, e.g., if it rings inconveniently during an important meeting.
Re: Noisy Coworkers And Other Sounds Are A Distraction In Workplace
#144It's better to work in somewhat noisy environment, where everybody can stare at your monitor, than commit suicide after two years of sitting in dark gloomy gray-walled cubicle without any natural light. I honestly can't understand people that can work in those depressing conditions.
Different people are different. Crazy huh?
People, who can choose where to sit, never pick a cubicle.
Re: Noisy Coworkers And Other Sounds Are A Distraction In Workplace
#145Earlier quoted context omitted.
One important thing to note for people reading this is that hyperactivity doesn't always persist into adulthood with the other symptoms or is greatly reduced and is often turned inward (mental fidgeting). As far as your firings go, if you haven't watched this video and/or read this doctor's books they really help with understanding exactly what you're dealing with: https://youtu.be/SCAGc-rkIfo It's long but worth wat…
video not found?
Oops, edited. Thanks. It's https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SCAGc-rkIfo
Re: Noisy Coworkers And Other Sounds Are A Distraction In Workplace
#146Earlier quoted context omitted.
> I find it hard to concentrate in silence Great! Put on some headphones, then?
You can! They have great noise canceling headphones these days, so go ahead and put those on and let everyone else do their thing?
I don't understand how that will create silence, not just "different noise".
Re: Noisy Coworkers And Other Sounds Are A Distraction In Workplace
#147The problem with open office plans is that it takes just one noisy person to spoil it for everybody. If managed carefully and actively, they can work -- it just takes an manager willing to correct bad behavior or send sick people home. Where I work, I have a budding tupperware percussionist, three imminent victims of whooping cough, some parents managing high-maintenance offspring over cell phones, and one guy who co…
It's often worse in that the noisy person hinders their coworkers, while no one hinders them -- particularly in a work culture that lauds "open" and discourages a limiting response on the part of others towards that person. Meanwhile, the quiet people are not keeping the noisy one from their work or working effectively if and when they choose to concentrate. Result? The noisy people "succeed". I consider it a cousin…
Right, blame the worker who has no choice but to work surrounded by another 100 people. Don't blame the business who cut corners on structural costs. Open offices don't exist because it's "better" for anyone; they exist because businesses save millions of dollars in building costs, and conveniently label it as a "cultural" thing.
Re: Noisy Coworkers And Other Sounds Are A Distraction In Workplace
#148I'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.
Satire doesn't go over well on HN.
Re: Noisy Coworkers And Other Sounds Are A Distraction In Workplace
#149Earlier quoted context omitted.
I have ADHD, meaning that open office is great to distract me... But also, one of the symptons of ADHD, with the "H" there, is that people must move, in my particular case one of the things I tend to do is tap my nails on the desk, use tupperware as drums, or if a actual musical instrument is nearby, even if I dunno how to play it, I play it. So, ADHD person in open office not only has terrible productivity due to ot…
It's too bad people like you can't sue for millions because these stupid companies have such intolerable office environments. I can't think of anything else that's going to get these stupid companies to change their ways. Things used to be a lot better 15+ years ago, when we had cubicles. It wasn't a panacea (since you could still hear your neighbors), but the cube farms I've worked in were much quieter than these id…
Those in some places are going away (cubicles) because of companies consolidating spaces to pack more people in.
Re: Noisy Coworkers And Other Sounds Are A Distraction In Workplace
#150Earlier quoted context omitted.
Until Pete Townsend gets a medical degree I'm disinclined to just take his word for it.
I'll take r-squared loss for 40 dB, Alex :)
Given Keith Moon's love for explosives I wouldn't be surprised if their pyrotechnic stunts helped this along too, like the accidental overdose of gunpowder in the bass drum on The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour.