Noisy Coworkers And Other Sounds Are A Distraction In Workplace • Hacker News Board

Re: Noisy Coworkers And Other Sounds Are A Distraction In Workplace

#171

Post by artificial » Thu, Oct 27, 2016, 4:54 AM UTC

buckbova wrote: post #122

> Dooley says he found the carrot-munching funny. If you have an open office, no eating at your desk period. Show some respect for your co-workers. I worked next to an apple eater some time ago, slurping and chomping on his apple every day. Drove me insane. But every so often there was the bag of baby carrots. Which although less disturbing lasted much longer. Then there's the fish eaters and microwave popcorn eaters…

This is hilarious, I wholeheartedly agree. I cannot stand popcorn in the office, especially since the microwave is a high wattage variant and nobody watches the popcorn so it burns frequently (with the fire department making an appearance recently)

Re: Noisy Coworkers And Other Sounds Are A Distraction In Workplace

#172

Post by ChuckMcM » Thu, Oct 27, 2016, 4:58 AM UTC

mgkimsal wrote: post #114

speeder wrote: post #80

Earlier 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…

but think of all the money they saved on the office space!

Yeah, here is an interesting experiment.

Take Alphabet's Q2 Earnings[1] and note that in the 3 months ending June 30, 2016, Alphabet generated 6.9B$ of free cash flow. That is after all the expenses they could think up to take out of it like building new data centers, offices, snacks, google I/O attendee gifts, whatever. Now divide that by the number of employees, 66,500. That means that there was just over $105,000 per employee in free cash flow. If they spent 5% of that, on a per employee basis, that would give them $1,750 per month for additional office space for that employee. Really posh office space is like $20/sq ft per month so divide that by $20 and you get 87 square feet of really nice office, add that to the 1/4 of a cube that employees currently get and you have 100 sq feet or a 10' x 10' room for each and every employee.

So no, with a 5% hit to their free cash flow they could give every single employee an office, or at least their own 10' x 10' cube, but they they would rather that money sit in cash or cash equivalents earning basically a couple of cents on the dollar.

Since the investment rate of return is about 2% for cash equivalents, and the productivity rate of return would be on the order of at least 5%, you could say they were being dollar wise and productivity foolish.

[1]https://abc.xyz/investor/news/earnings/2016/Q2_alphabet_earn...

Re: Noisy Coworkers And Other Sounds Are A Distraction In Workplace

#173

Post by MaulingMonkey » Thu, Oct 27, 2016, 5:01 AM UTC

driverdan wrote: post #163

speeder wrote: post #80

Earlier 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…

You've recognized some of the problems you encounter with ADHD. Have you attempted to take corrective action? Instead of having hard objects around that make noise have something soft to play with. In the end you're responsible for your actions.

> Have you attempted to take corrective action?

Easier said than done I suspect - people aren't necessarily aware of their own subconscious fidgeting when it's happening. How do you even build awareness of what you're doing subconsciously?

When my cubical desk is shaking like I'm in an earthquake because a coworker in a connected desk is bouncing their leg, they're more than happy to knock it off when I ask them to. That they were doing it in the first place takes them by surprise.

This happens often enough to be distracting, but rarely enough that it's hard to build a habit of catching themselves in the act.

I suppose one could build some kind of seismometer and attach it to an audio cue, but starting on a new hardware projects isn't exactly less of a distraction... and I'm not exactly immune to the siren call of bouncing my leg, either.

> In the end you're responsible for your actions.

Sure. But my take on open offices, is that they're distraction-inducing by design. Most of the rationale around them - aside from cost cutting - seems to be around such things as "It's easier to talk to people" / "see what they're working on" / ...

Who's responsible for the action of creating that environment?

Re: Noisy Coworkers And Other Sounds Are A Distraction In Workplace

#174

Post by Joof » Thu, Oct 27, 2016, 5:09 AM UTC

speeder wrote: post #80

pklausler wrote: post #10

The 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…

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…

Came here to say this. The fidgets are known to help with focus and thought, so if I can't fidget, I work noticeably more poorly. It's very difficult to notice them already.

Oddly enough, I can be very helpful to others in an open space, but I've never managed to get my own work done.

Re: Noisy Coworkers And Other Sounds Are A Distraction In Workplace

#175

Post by Joof » Thu, Oct 27, 2016, 5:11 AM UTC

taneq wrote: post #166

brazzledazzle wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oops, edited. Thanks. It's https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SCAGc-rkIfo

Very interesting video, thanks! I just got up to the part where he basically says that people with ADHD basically don't have an inner monologue. Is that right? If so why have I never heard this before?

That sound horrendously wrong. Maybe for certain things we don't notice, but I have an inner monologue nearly 100% of the time (alongside other types of thought).

Re: Noisy Coworkers And Other Sounds Are A Distraction In Workplace

#176

Post by taneq » Thu, Oct 27, 2016, 5:27 AM UTC

Joof wrote: post #175

taneq wrote: post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Very interesting video, thanks! I just got up to the part where he basically says that people with ADHD basically don't have an inner monologue. Is that right? If so why have I never heard this before?

That sound horrendously wrong. Maybe for certain things we don't notice, but I have an inner monologue nearly 100% of the time (alongside other types of thought).

Yeah, a few seconds' web searching returns legions of diagnosed ADHD people with highly energetic inner monologues. It does kind of throw some doubt on the rest of the talk, given that he essentially says that ADHD is caused by the lack of inner voice leading to a lack of executive function and inability to control responses to stimuli.

Re: Noisy Coworkers And Other Sounds Are A Distraction In Workplace

#177

Post by ofcapl_ » Thu, Oct 27, 2016, 5:28 AM UTC

How many people in one room makes open space? I work with 8-10 people in one room and found a moderate distraction till I've turn my desk to the wall and I have everyone behind me.

Re: Noisy Coworkers And Other Sounds Are A Distraction In Workplace

#178

Post by ajmurmann » Thu, Oct 27, 2016, 5:34 AM UTC

ryandrake wrote: post #26

Different strokes for different folks. I'm probably the only person on HN that prefers open office workspaces. I currently have an office to myself and it's so lonely and isolating. I think I'd go crazy working all day without human interaction, so I hardly ever use it. And, no, chat isn't an adequate substitute. I'll generally charge up my laptop and go out and work in a break room or some other common area with act…

I think it really depends who you are sharing the space with. To me it's very valuable to have the other engineers from my team and the PM as close as possible. Especially with a lot of pair programming going on being able to overhear stuff is invaluable. Having some sales guy nearby on the other hand has no advantage and is only distracting.

Re: Noisy Coworkers And Other Sounds Are A Distraction In Workplace

#179

Post by belvoran » Thu, Oct 27, 2016, 5:37 AM UTC

I was working in an open space for a couple of years. The phones were ringing happily, including the official corporate ones, which were standing on each desk. People were talking all the time. Talking, walking, looking at my screen, of course with lots of comments to my code. 70 people in the floor.

We had all the funny things for the group integration all the time. All the things except for thinking.

Yes, I was sitting all the time with my headphones, shouting maximally to my ears. Until one of those people making noise told me that it is not team friendly to have so loud phones, as he hears the music, and cannot concentrate.

Of course the management had their separate offices, with walls, and doors. They didn't see any problem.

For the last 6 years I've been working remotely from home. Well, what a change. In 4 hours I could do more than for a week in the open space.

Re: Noisy Coworkers And Other Sounds Are A Distraction In Workplace

#180

Post by CaptSpify » Thu, Oct 27, 2016, 5:54 AM UTC

jmcdiesel wrote: post #109

CaptSpify wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just like we need to adapt to poor eyesight instead of relying on these "glasses" everyone keeps raving about. /s I find it hard to take your statement seriously

Those two things are completely non relatable. If your eyesight is bad, there are things YOU can do for YOURSELF to fix that problem, without asking anyone to change what THEY are doing. The "quiet office" is something that only some people prefer. Many of us (I'm one of them) prefer noise - music playing, background noise, etc ... I find it hard to concentrate in silence, and I know more people like me. To ask other…

So everyone should just adhere to how you want the world to be? yeah, that makes sense.

I'm not asking anyone to change what they are doing. I'm asking them to stfu and do their job. They are the ones interrupting me, and getting into my business. Your the one asking people to change themselves to conform to your preferences.