Office noise bothers some people more than others • Hacker News Board

Re: Office noise bothers some people more than others

#151

Post by Eric_WVGG » Mon, Nov 18, 2019, 7:49 PM UTC

rhizome wrote: post #82

liquidise wrote: post #40

I'm a data point that favors surrounding noise. For years, my most productivity-dense time of the week is when i bring my laptop to a local sports bar for prime time NFL games. Something about the consistent noise, available momentary distractions and wandering eyes keeps me on-task and cradled in thought in a way no office (home or formal) does.

A game in the background provides structure to the noise and, for me, makes "random" background noise more tolerable and ignorable, the same mechanism that helps me focus when I'm listening to regular music. The thing about offices is that in my experience it's unstructured, so anything that can catch my ear might require my attention, and that takes a lot of focus away from the thing I'm actually trying to do. That…

Likewise. I've worked almost exclusively out of cafes for the past twenty years. I find it akin to white noise.

Re: Office noise bothers some people more than others

#152

Post by rpmisms » Mon, Nov 18, 2019, 7:53 PM UTC

acd wrote: post #117

I think that the open plan office trend is stupid. It is not good for productivity and it is not good for noise. People collaborate less in open plan offices compared to traditional private offices. Yet open plan offices are promoted as strengthening cooperation.

Small offices with a few people, preferably with junior-senior pairing. I'm a junior in an office with a senior, and being near someone who knows our systems well is invaluable to me, and has helped me onboard much much faster.

Re: Office noise bothers some people more than others

#153

Post by rpmisms » Mon, Nov 18, 2019, 7:55 PM UTC

I'm incredibly lucky to have a small shared office with an officemate who doesn't mind my Kailh Box Jade keyboard. There's enough ambient sound from the ancient furnace that it almost sounds like a pleasant ASMR video on most days.

Re: Office noise bothers some people more than others

#154

Post by wdb » Mon, Nov 18, 2019, 7:57 PM UTC

arthurfm wrote: post #85

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…

> 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. For me it's people who talk while eating and who read emails aloud while writing them. So annoying! I have had to resort to taking noise cancelling headphones to work.

Eating at your desk is a pain point of mine. Why not go to the canteen?

Re: Office noise bothers some people more than others

#155

Post by wdb » Mon, Nov 18, 2019, 7:59 PM UTC

It's a bit like people drinking coffee in the office, horrendous smell that you can smell from miles aways and makes you nauseous but you can't tell to not drink it.

Re: Office noise bothers some people more than others

#156

Post by newnewpdro » Mon, Nov 18, 2019, 8:05 PM UTC

wdb wrote: post #155

It's a bit like people drinking coffee in the office, horrendous smell that you can smell from miles aways and makes you nauseous but you can't tell to not drink it.

I'm no fan of coffee but you seem exceptionally sensitive in this regard.

Re: Office noise bothers some people more than others

#157

Post by electricslpnsld » Mon, Nov 18, 2019, 8:07 PM UTC

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)?

Ugh in my current open office the team next to me has entered a machismo fueled arms race for who can find the loudest clacky keyboard possible... even with the biggest and baddest noise cancelling cans I could find twelve hours of my day are just clack clack clack, I’m going slowly insane!

Re: Office noise bothers some people more than others

#158

Post by electricslpnsld » Mon, Nov 18, 2019, 8:09 PM UTC

So in my last job my desk was positioned about 6 feet from the men’s restroom, which didn’t have a door but instead one of those twisty airport paths to block line of sight. Needless to say the sounds were not pleasant, especially when the office lunches were more on the lentil-like side of things

Re: Office noise bothers some people more than others

#159

Post by magduf » Mon, Nov 18, 2019, 8:11 PM UTC

navs wrote: post #135

I currently work for a startup and all three of us are hotdesking. We're constantly moved to new spaces in the hotdesking space because a new company is leaving/moving in. I've sat beside recruiters, property managers and salespeople. There's no "quiet" room. The meeting rooms cost a few hundred and need to be pre-booked. My home environment isn't a quiet refuge either. Beside a busy street, more flatmates than their…

>Yes, you can use noise cancelling headphones but: >2. They don't really block all the noise and you live in anxiety waiting for that one blaring ringtone to squeeze through

NC headphones aren't designed to block all noise, only repetitive noise, basically white noise. Other noises, like ringtones, actually are louder or easier to hear on many models of NC headphones, as is speech around you. Noise-cancellation's purpose is to attenuate white noise, such as the drone of your office A/C, or your airplane's engines. It's not meant to block anything else, and if your headphones do, it's because they're also acoustically isolating (e.g., they have bin "cans" over your ears physically blocking noise, but that has nothing to do with NC).

Re: Office noise bothers some people more than others

#160

Post by fyfy18 » Mon, Nov 18, 2019, 8:11 PM UTC

chadash wrote: post #103

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…

Counterpoint: John von Neumann, arguably one of the greatest mathematicians of all time, claimed to do some of his best work in front of the TV. In my personal experience, I know plenty of engineers who don't mind noise. I think it's a personal thing more than anything and it's hard to generalize.

I find I can focus pretty well in a noisy coffee shop, but if I'm in an office and someone on the desk next to me starts having a conversation, I lose all focus.