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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

#171

Post by LameRubberDucky »

magduf wrote: post #164
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…

This is no longer true. Most younger people in engineering/CS fields are the "communicator" type and like to work in noisy, open-office environments, and frequently side-by-side. It's usually older and/or more introverted people who complain about the open-office craze, but there's absolutely no shortage of programmers who will strongly defend it.

Citation needed. Otherwise, this is just reads as ageism.

Re: Office noise bothers some people more than others

#172

Post by jackhack »

Quarrelsome wrote: post #98
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.

Yes, I've seen this, and experienced it myself. It's possible, but hardly preferred.

Do you ever wonder how much better could you perform in a non-distracting environment?

Re: Office noise bothers some people more than others

#173

Post by AceyMan »

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…

So much this.

A few years ago we had a Salesforce BA on site under a fairly long (1yr+) contract. He matched this 'partial cough' pattern exactly as you described it.

I kept a clicker-counter at my desk and kept stats, and updated HR frequently with the numbers.

They finally saw the light and allowed him to work from home for the remainder of his contract term. My productivity immediately bumped back up 20% …

Re: Office noise bothers some people more than others

#175

Post by newnewpdro »

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)?

It depends on the people, but it's safe to err on the side of yes clickety keyboards annoy some.

Nobody will be excessively interrupted/distracted by a quiet keyboard. The same is not true for the other direction.

At my last position, open office, a few people on my team complained about other members' loud buckling-spring-like keyboards. Since it was an open office and we were all complaining about noises well beyond some of the keyboards, like sales calls and constant conversations, it was somewhat moot and nothing was really done about it. But it definitely increased animosity within the team, it pays to be especially considerate of your neighbors, particularly ones you need to collaborate with.

Re: Office noise bothers some people more than others

#176

Post by NortySpock »

drhodes wrote: post #114
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…

When noise gets bad for me, I put in foam ear plugs, wear large headphones and use the following command to summon a pleasant oasis somewhere under a tropical waterfall far from the misophonic hell. alias noise='play -n synth brownnoise synth pinknoise mix synth sine amod 0.02 80'

For other people thinking of rolling their own solution, p5.js has a sound library that is easy to use; should be pretty quick to write a one-button webpage that makes pink noise.

https://p5js.org/reference/#/p5.Noise

Re: Office noise bothers some people more than others

#177

Post by jackhack »

DoofusOfDeath wrote: post #93
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?

Thank you. I don't, unfortunately. It was formulated purely on my own experience and instinct.

This was part of a presentation I gave in the early 2000s, literally begging my management not to destroy productivity by moving our company from cubicles to an "open floor plan/hot desk" environment. I wanted to boil down the issue to its essence and this dichotomy was the product. As others have pointed out, the real answer is that people work on a continuum, but my point is that if we are going to pursue a change in environments, we should attempt to understand the nature of work and strive for an ideal. Why implement a "solution" that only works for one end of the concentrator/collaborator scale?

In my case, implementation of the hot-desk program proceeded anyway, and I left the company soon after. Life is too short to be treated with such lack of consideration. The company has since laid off 10s of thousands of employees and sold off most of their once-glittering R&D campus buildings, bulldozing others. Only a thin shell of what used to be persists.

I regret that I did not ask a rhetorical question such as the following: "if you had to re-take a college mathematics exam in eight hours, and your continued employment depends on a passing score, where would you go to study? A quiet room, or a busy place like the food court at the shopping mall or a bus terminal?" but I realize the executive Q&A sessions were merely a show trial, not a true inquiry. The decisions were made well in advance.

Re: Office noise bothers some people more than others

#178

Post by philsnow »

grzm wrote: post #125
codemac wrote: post #120

Best reusable earplugs anyone? I've used the silicon moldable ones and the plastic ones that go in the earl canal - but they are not very re-usable, and when someone pops over to chat taking them in and out is a chore.

I’m a fan of Etymotic Ety Plugs. Etymotic in general makes pretty solid kit.

In the past, before I had ANC headphones, I used to wear these under over-the-ear headphones. It worked pretty well.

Re: Office noise bothers some people more than others

#179

Post by fyfy18 »

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.

I don't even believe the argument of open offices being more space efficient is true.

I work in a co-working space with an open office section (fortunately there is a written rule that you must be silent), and surrounded by offices that sit 3 - 6 people. The offices have the same density as the open section - they are just separated by glass walls and a door.

Re: Office noise bothers some people more than others

#180

Post by fyfy18 »

MereInterest wrote: post #131
mikece wrote: post #122

Noise can be blocked out for the most part: either noise-cancelling headsets (or turning the volume up to 11) to get block out noise-based distractions. But silence or not, what is more disrupting to me are the interruptions from email, slack, or a coworker (or boss!) stopping by or asking a question that could have waited. The real problem is task switching and if it knocks you out of flow it's a productivity killer…

Noise-canceling headsets work for repetitive noises that are easily predictable, such as engine noise. Human speech is very unpredictable, and noise-canceling headsets have very little impact on them. Turning up the volume on headphones quickly leads to hearing loss, and should never be the recommended solution.

I have a set of noise cancelling Sony MDR-1000X (previous generation) and just having the headphones switched on without music playing, they don't do much to block voice. However if I play music quietly I can't hear anything, even if someone is talking right next to me (or at me).
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