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Office noise bothers some people more than others

bbc.com

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Re: Office noise bothers some people more than others

#11

Post by tempguy9999 »

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…

That was a very, very stupid thing to do.

https://latterdaysaintmag.com/the-parable-of-chestertons-fen...

Re: Office noise bothers some people more than others

#12

Post by Ididntdothis »

dimino wrote: post #2

I tend to be a bit skeptical when studies are based on extroversion and introversion, if only because I can test on all parts of the spectrum depending on my mood. I think people shackle their identity to their *version, and it can be limiting.

This is generally a problem. We put people into these large categories like “liberal/conservative” or “introvert/extrovert” and then expect that to neatly explain a whole range of behaviors and preferences. In reality people rarely fall completely into these categories.

Re: Office noise bothers some people more than others

#13

Post by debt »

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…

“I unplugged it and put it in a dumpster. Nobody ever complained.”

Amazing. Good work.

Re: Office noise bothers some people more than others

#14

Post by zabzonk »

jagged-chisel wrote: post #10
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…

The linked article doesn't mention noise as the subject of the article - the word appears once on the page. Are you in the right place?

> The linked article mentions noise

I guess so.

Re: Office noise bothers some people more than others

#15

Post by gnode »

jagged-chisel wrote: post #10
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…

The linked article doesn't mention noise as the subject of the article - the word appears once on the page. Are you in the right place?

Although not about noise pollution, it does bring to mind the question of how well some of these studies might have controlled for the effect of noise pollution, which would likely have an effect on cognition, and correlate with air pollution.

Re: Office noise bothers some people more than others

#16

Post by tenebrisalietum »

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…

Did you mean to post here? https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21565841

Re: Office noise bothers some people more than others

#17

Post by slfnflctd »

dimino wrote: post #2

I tend to be a bit skeptical when studies are based on extroversion and introversion, if only because I can test on all parts of the spectrum depending on my mood. I think people shackle their identity to their *version, and it can be limiting.

I'd almost compare it to gender. Yes there's a spectrum, but the outer areas are very lumpy. In the case of sensitivity to office noise, the only aspect I see as intersecting with extro/intro traits would be chitchat. Everything else seems like it would come down to distractibility level, which I don't think is tied to those traits at all.

I'm just glad so many managers are cool with responsible use of headphones & noise cancellation approaches these days. Certain tasks simply require more focus.

Re: Office noise bothers some people more than others

#18

Post by [deleted] »

jagged-chisel wrote: post #10
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…

The linked article doesn't mention noise as the subject of the article - the word appears once on the page. Are you in the right place?

[deleted]

Re: Office noise bothers some people more than others

#19

Post by ChainOfFools »

nkrisc wrote: post #3

Constant coughing and throat clearing drive me up the wall . I despise working around most smokers as many of them have this unconscious, horrid smoker's cough that they do a few times a minute on average, it seems (I haven't actually counted). But any constant throat clearing sets me off and I usually have to leave or I can't focus on anything. The type of throat clearing I'm talking about is when someone really jus…

non smoker here. I get an acute case of this after drinking milk or anything with high cold dairy content, and it drives me up the wall when _I_ do it. like my own body has turned uncooperative out of petty spite.

Re: Office noise bothers some people more than others

#20

Post by isoskeles »

coupdejarnac wrote: post #8

I see no mention of genetic predisposition to hating office noise. 23andme looks for a marker that indicates hating the sound of chewing, misophonia. Maybe something similar is at play for other noises.

I have a hatred of the sound of any marker dragging against (non-glossy) paper. It's torturous to me, makes me physically cringe and grind my teeth when I hear the noise. And conversely, marker-against-glossy-paper is a very pleasing sound to me.

Now I'm wondering if that's genetic and how many other people have the same experience with those sounds.

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