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

Re: Office noise bothers some people more than others

#101

Post by globalproctd » Mon, Nov 18, 2019, 6:38 PM UTC

jdcro wrote: post #59

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)?

Yes, mechanical keyboards are noisy and inappropriate for a shared office.

I work in an open office with 5 other programmers around, and none of us are bothered by each other's mechanical keyboards. We have a mix of Cherry Blues and Browns. We all agree that it's the least annoying thing about our open office.

It's a shared cultural thing unique to each company, no need to cast a blanket statement.

Re: Office noise bothers some people more than others

#102

Post by jagged-chisel » Mon, Nov 18, 2019, 6:38 PM UTC

gnode wrote: post #51

jagged-chisel wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not sure how controlling for noise pollution affects studying air pollution - can you elucidate? Still, I don't understand how noise pollution anecdotes are relevant to an article on air pollution.

I think the anecdotal comment was actually meant for a different discussion ( https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21565841 ).

I think you're right. But commenter disagrees: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21566256

Likely because they didn't actually check the context.

Re: Office noise bothers some people more than others

#103

Post by chadash » Mon, Nov 18, 2019, 6:40 PM UTC

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.

Re: Office noise bothers some people more than others

#104

Post by hinkley » Mon, Nov 18, 2019, 6:40 PM UTC

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.

I think you've got some cocktail party effect going on there.

Conversely, one of the most distracting things for me is barely hearing people talking. My brain keeps trying to interpret the murmuring as words before it can reject it.

Re: Office noise bothers some people more than others

#105

Post by DoofusOfDeath » Mon, Nov 18, 2019, 6:41 PM UTC

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…

> I wanted to murder her. No joke. If I could get away with it, I would have. The anger was physical and deep. Rage and disgust was the feeling, and I felt personally attacked. It felt like a "fight or flee" instinct, where I'd prefer to fight.

Just in case you're not using hyperbole, you might consider some visits with a good counselor. I think most people can learn techniques to avoid getting so angry, and the unhappiness that comes with it.

Re: Office noise bothers some people more than others

#106

Post by cowpewter » Mon, Nov 18, 2019, 6:42 PM UTC

rhizome wrote: post #88

asdf21 wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just chew nicotine gum, sheesh! These kids and their vapes.. Anyway, you're right, nicotine is a pain to quit and I wouldn't recommend it obviously. But vaping seems to be even more unhealthy and more distracting.

Nicotine gum is as expensive as cigarettes, if not more. I spend about $30/year for my vape supplies. I buy juice by the liter and the coils are the only other consumable and those are about $2 apiece every few months.

I mix my own juice. I did the math a few months ago, and I can make 60ml of juice (which lasts me about a week) for about $1.50. Coils usually last me about a month to a month and a half, and I usually pay $5ish a piece. So yeah... my monthly vaping costs are about $11/month at the most.

So, doing the math, as I use 3mg/ml juice, I vape about 720 mg of nicotine a month. If I bought the cheapest Wal-mart generic brand gum, in the 2mg pieces (because to replace my vape, I'd want a low dose per piece), 720 mg of nicotine in gum form would cost $81/month.

That is a huge difference. Even accounting for the fact that my vape device cost me originally $70, it's still cheaper, potentially as soon as the first month, to vape over chewing gum.

Re: Office noise bothers some people more than others

#107

Post by peterangular » Mon, Nov 18, 2019, 6:42 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)?

Yes - they're inappropriate for open offices and there's a very good chance that you're bothering someone.

Best way to handle this is communicate. Last office mate I had asked if he could bring his in, and since it was something that's never bothered me I was totally fine with it... I brought mine in shortly after ;)

The dampening rings don't help much either.

Re: Office noise bothers some people more than others

#108

Post by DoofusOfDeath » Mon, Nov 18, 2019, 6:42 PM UTC

tzs wrote: post #100

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 p…

I'm curious if Bob had reasons for doing that. Most everybody has some private struggles and coping mechanisms / life hacks.

Re: Office noise bothers some people more than others

#109

Post by hinkley » Mon, Nov 18, 2019, 6:44 PM UTC

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.

A lot of people who label themselves introverts have sensory processing sensitivities. If you measure sensory overload you're going to find 'introverts'.

Re: Office noise bothers some people more than others

#110

Post by mnem » Mon, Nov 18, 2019, 6:45 PM UTC

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…

It’s not as clear cut as this. I form and hold complex ideas communicating with colleagues when designing and implementing a broad range of software systems (we work on core libraries used across our company) - we bat things around a lot and get to pretty decent solutions rapidly. I’m fortunate to be amongst people who work like this. I’ve also worked in teams where members preferred to concentrate on problems individually. While I can work like that, I much prefer more communicative teams.