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Noisy Coworkers And Other Sounds Are A Distraction In Workplace

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

#191

Post by Jaruzel »

Grishnakh wrote: post #92
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…

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…

Here in the UK, they just skipped the cubicle stage altogether and cut from smaller offices to massive open-plan floors in one fell swoop about 20 years ago ... :(

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

#192

Post by misja111 »

nisse72 wrote: post #89

I am currently working in a very crowded open office. We have small desks where we sit almost elbow to elbow, the place is all hard surfaces (it's an old industrial building made into office space), and there is a fair amount of noise. But none of this would bother me except for the fact that one senior person has decided to have speakers installed in the ceiling, and we have to listen to non-stop spotify playing top…

Have you tried talking to your senior colleague about it? If your colleague can't be without music, then it seems a better solution that he starts wearing headphones instead of you.

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

#193

Post by 0x54MUR41 »

Cal Newport recently is discussing about the open office. I am sure it is related to his new book, Deep Work. These following posts are explained it:

- Is Facebook’s Massive Open Office Scaring Away Developers? [1]

- The Opposite of the Open Office [2]

The previous discussion of one of that post also appears on HN. You may check it out here https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12677866.

[1]: http://calnewport.com/blog/2016/10/09/is-facebooks-massive-o...

[2]: http://calnewport.com/blog/2016/10/19/the-opposite-of-the-op...

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

#194

Post by barabba »

kough wrote: post #119
6DM wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was turning the volume up loud enough to drown out the loud conversations when using ear-buds. By damaging, I mean I was constantly asking people to repeat them selves because while I could hear them I couldn't distinguish their words. Not everyone was like that, just moderate to soft spoken people or those with deep voices. I didn't make the connection until I happened across one article about it, which I think wa…

I had the same issue with noise-cancelling headphones (the bose qc 20 in-ears) where I couldn't wear them without sound pumping through them, so I ended up buying a pair of custom-molded in ear monitors (IEM is the search keyword to learn more). For a little cheaper than the price of the bose headphones, I had an audiologist take molds of my inner ear and then sent them to a guy in Poland ( http://thecustomart.com/mu…

Can I ask you which model you did buy? I am in the process of doing precisely the same and wondering if their acrylic models are isolating enough. Silicon apparently isolates better but requires more maintenance, makes them more difficult to insert and remove, and I'm not fully convinced I should go for a Music Two sound-wise. Thanks a bunch!

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

#195

Post by bbcbasic »

MaysonL wrote: post #73
Matachines wrote: post #9

Another thread where most commenters will advocate for remote work and/or private offices. I agree. Dan Luu recently said this about Peopleware, which advocates for offices and is highly regarded: > This book seemed convincing when I read it in college. It even had all sorts of studies backing up what they said. No deadlines is better than having deadlines. Offices are better than cubicles. Basically all devs I talk…

Same reasons that C/C++/Java/Javascript beat all the better languages. Pop culture.

It's not that clear cut because finding developers with experience and getting tooling for the non mainstream languages is harder.

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

#196

Post by andrei_says_ »

pzh wrote: post #74
6DM wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I feel your pain. One thing that used to really irk me was a manager (with an office) that would have loud speakerphone conversations with the door wide open... I used to use ear buds to block it out, but I don't recommend it. It actually does damage your hearing. I didn't figure that out for a while. Luckily my hearing has seemed to improve a bit. I highly recommend over the ear noise cancelling head phones. They ge…

I'm curious... could you explain what you specifically meant by ear-buds being damaging to your hearing? Were you blasting the volume to drown out environment noise or were you talking about noise-canceling earphones? (I personally use noise-canceling earphones a lot, and the only bad thing I've heard is that they may cause vertigo in some people...)

A different person, but hopefully my answer is also helpful: I used to wear etymotic research headphones with really good isolation for the same reasons. A few hours a day would cause redness/itching/wounds/bleeding on the skin of my ear canals.

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

#197

Post by gvurrdon »

Office noise has become a bit of an issue for me recently, this being the reason:

http://www.tinnitus.org.uk/hyperacusis

Although the amount of talking in the office is low and not very disturbing, and there's certainly nothing like the horror of Spotify which one commenter here mentioned, there are people at work who make noise which sounds particularly intrusive and distracting to me (e.g. sniffing, throat clearing and similar). Of course, to many others these would not seem to be much of a problem, being more like background noise, and so most don't fully appreciate how much of a nuisance it can be.

A lot of it can be covered up with earphones playing white noise, nature sounds, or similar, but too much of that during the day does seem to have a deleterious effect on hearing, such as by making tinnitus louder. Wearing them also interferes with those occasions where it is useful to talk to colleagues.

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

#198

Post by dazc »

mikestew wrote: post #84
post_break wrote: post #6

Coworker 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…

If I tell her she's being too loud I look like an asshole. Only to her. Everyone else silently thanks you. Don't let assholes define the narrative by feeling like an asshole because you asked an asshole to quit being such an asshole.

I rent a closed office space but immediately outside my door sits a girl who thought it was cool to play music while she worked. I thought it was best to nip this behaviour in the bud and asked her to turn it down.

This was 6 months ago and she hasn't spoken to me since. I sometimes say hello and goodbye but she just blanks me.

Assholes will always find a way to be an asshole no matter what you do.

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

#199

Post by nisse72 »

misja111 wrote: post #192
nisse72 wrote: post #89

I am currently working in a very crowded open office. We have small desks where we sit almost elbow to elbow, the place is all hard surfaces (it's an old industrial building made into office space), and there is a fair amount of noise. But none of this would bother me except for the fact that one senior person has decided to have speakers installed in the ceiling, and we have to listen to non-stop spotify playing top…

Have you tried talking to your senior colleague about it? If your colleague can't be without music, then it seems a better solution that he starts wearing headphones instead of you.

Haha, the senior colleague in the story is the CEO, and my manager is the CTO. The CTO is on our side but the CEO cares only about 1 person and it's not us. Hence: clueless and does not give a toss.
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