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Office noise bothers some people more than others

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Re: Office noise bothers some people more than others

#91

Post by neurotrace »

bloopernova wrote: post #71
yla92 wrote: post #48

I am curious about this. Do people who work in the open plan office, feel bothered by clicky mechanical keyboard sounds (cherry mx blue, greeen etc)?

I love my mechanical keyboard. But, even dampened with o-rings, I wouldn't use it in the office. I use an Apple keyboard instead.

It depends on the switches. A significant percentage of people in my office use the Apple keyboards and they're definitely louder than my Cherry MX Silent Red switches. I don't even have o-rings on them and they're almost completely silent as long as you aren't slamming on them.

Re: Office noise bothers some people more than others

#93

Post by DoofusOfDeath »

jackhack wrote: post #80

There are two mutually exclusive groups of people: "Concentrators(1)" and "Communicators(2)". Concentrators must have conditions that allow one to form and hold complex ideas, and act upon them. This is almost always some degree of a quiet environment, without visual or auditory distractions. the opposite of the ideal conditions of Communicators. Communicators must interact with others to do their job. (1) Typical of…

You're taxonomy sounds plausible, but it's not obviously true based on my experience.

Do you know of any empirical studies that support the generalization?

Re: Office noise bothers some people more than others

#94

Post by drdeadringer »

jrootabega wrote: post #89
734129837261 wrote: post #67

My biggest triggers are people who eat crunchy food with open mouths; people who slurp their drinks; people who are oblivious to their environment and sing loudly in open offices. Colleagues next to me eating hard carrots, chips, anything crunchy. Or Chinese expats who slurp their soup and coffee (normal in their culture; rude in mine)... it drove me crazy. The singing one drove me insane at my last job. An office la…

She did it to get you mad.

If that were true, would that be another reason not to work with her?

Re: Office noise bothers some people more than others

#95

Post by tener »

734129837261 wrote: post #67

My biggest triggers are people who eat crunchy food with open mouths; people who slurp their drinks; people who are oblivious to their environment and sing loudly in open offices. Colleagues next to me eating hard carrots, chips, anything crunchy. Or Chinese expats who slurp their soup and coffee (normal in their culture; rude in mine)... it drove me crazy. The singing one drove me insane at my last job. An office la…

Genuinely puzzled the lady wasn't immediately silenced by others or management of this place. It must have been clear this is disruptive?

Re: Office noise bothers some people more than others

#96

Post by DoofusOfDeath »

brailsafe wrote: post #36
zabzonk wrote: post #7

People put with noise far more than they have to. Here are a few of my experiences: - moved into an office where a very noisy dot-matrix printer printed out every opening and closing of a door in the building. Nobody ever looked at the printouts. I unplugged it and put it in a dumpster. Nobody ever complained. - working for an oil company, my boss was sitting next to a big HP plotter that was horribly noisy - he wore…

My biggest hurdle—aside from undocumented code—at my new company, is fucking mouth noises from coworkers and the sound of crumpling snack bags in an open office. It's to the extent where I have to leave the area and regain composure before mentioning it. If I can't find a way to manage, I'll leave, but I'm not in the financial position to have that luxury yet. What will probably happen, is I'll work up to a slow comp…

Your situation is so absurd that I'm immediately reminded of the film "Joe vs. the Volcano".

I think everyone here wishes you the best of luck.

Re: Office noise bothers some people more than others

#97

Post by decebalus1 »

cowpewter wrote: post #73
giggles_giggles wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If I could go back a few years and warn you against using nicotine to self-medicate ADHD, I would. I also have ADHD and kicked a 5 year vaping habit about a year ago. Nicotine might help you focus in the very short term, but if you can't re-up every half hour, it makes it a lot harder to focus in the long term! I spent 4 years as a developer, unable to vape in my shared office, being interrupted every hour by the nee…

Oh geez, yeah, I'm definitely not endorsing self-medicating with nicotine, just saying, that I did, and that if nicotine helps you concentrate, you might wanna get evaluated for ADHD. I was never a smoker, and I vape the lightest dose nicotine available (3mg/ml). I have definitely developed a light addiction over the years, but I can go all day without needing my vape. The worst my cravings get are a feeling of "Man,…

Huh.. your experience sounds similar to mine, although I was a heavy smoker for ~10 years. I currently vape 3mg and a) my vape never leaves the house (I never vape at work or around town) b) I often forget about vaping c) I left on a two week vacation, forgot my vape at home and nothing happened. I have the exact same craving sensation 'would have been nice to have a vape right now', usually when I'm bored. But I am a strong advocate against smoking (obviously) and vaping. Nobody should pick up vaping unless it's to attempt to give up smoking. It's still a nasty habit and super dangerous. When I say dangerous I mean the fact that in contrast to smoking, vaping has the risk of becoming a hobby.

Re: Office noise bothers some people more than others

#98

Post by Quarrelsome »

jackhack wrote: post #80

There are two mutually exclusive groups of people: "Concentrators(1)" and "Communicators(2)". Concentrators must have conditions that allow one to form and hold complex ideas, and act upon them. This is almost always some degree of a quiet environment, without visual or auditory distractions. the opposite of the ideal conditions of Communicators. Communicators must interact with others to do their job. (1) Typical of…

its not a bool, its a scale. I do concentrator work just fine in a distracting environment. Other "concentrators" get more pissed off about it than I do.

Re: Office noise bothers some people more than others

#99

Post by lowercased »

tempguy9999 wrote: post #86
brailsafe wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My biggest hurdle—aside from undocumented code—at my new company, is fucking mouth noises from coworkers and the sound of crumpling snack bags in an open office. It's to the extent where I have to leave the area and regain composure before mentioning it. If I can't find a way to manage, I'll leave, but I'm not in the financial position to have that luxury yet. What will probably happen, is I'll work up to a slow comp…

Wow, you're even more noise sensitive that me. Suggestion: noise cancelling headphones. Good ones are really effective.

They do - bose qc20 have changed my life for the better.

I did work short term in an open office where someone suggested it was "rude" of me to wear earphones. Same person chewed with their mouth open while eating crunchy food at their desk all day, within earshot. But.... I'm rude somehow.

Re: Office noise bothers some people more than others

#100

Post by tzs »

734129837261 wrote: post #67

My biggest triggers are people who eat crunchy food with open mouths; people who slurp their drinks; people who are oblivious to their environment and sing loudly in open offices. Colleagues next to me eating hard carrots, chips, anything crunchy. Or Chinese expats who slurp their soup and coffee (normal in their culture; rude in mine)... it drove me crazy. The singing one drove me insane at my last job. An office la…

We had a guy who narrated whatever he was doing, in third person. Let's call him Bob. Suppose Bob needed to FTP a file from a server, print it, staple the pages together, and then give it to me.

During this entire process, Bob would talk, saying something like this:

> Bob is starting the FTP program. Bob is typing his name and password. Bob is starting the file transfer. Bob's exiting. Bob is selecting the file and printing it. Bob is selecting two sided printing. Bob has sent the file to the printer. Now Bob is walking to the printer. Bob is picking up the sheets. Bob is looking for a stapler. Bob found it, and is stapling the sheets. Bob is walking to tzs' desk. Bob's handing the printout to tzs.

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