Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Noisy Coworkers And Other Sounds Are A Distraction In Workplace

npr.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

41–50 of 256 posts

Re: Noisy Coworkers And Other Sounds Are A Distraction In Workplace

#41

Post by jjp »

For an summary of all the environmental/physiological factors that affect work performance in the office take a look at Creating the Productive Workplace [1]. Research material covered include affect of temperature (high/low and variation), humidity, indoor air quality, ventilation and it's control, lighting, crowding, daylight (too much/too little), artificial light (wrong type) and noise.

One of the points that comes out quite strongly is that whilst each of the environmental factors does adversely/positively impact your performance your ability to control (or lack of control) can have a greater impact. For example you will tolerate colder and warmer environments if you know that you can have some influence on the temperature .

[1] https://www.researchgate.net/publication/279190533_Creating_...

Re: Noisy Coworkers And Other Sounds Are A Distraction In Workplace

#42

Post by ThePhysicist »

The company I'm currently working at bought everyone some top-of-the-line Bose noise-canceling headphones for the same reason, as we have an open plan office and coworkers can be chatty sometimes. And while the noise canceling is far from being perfect, it really makes it much easier to stay focused when working. I even wear them on my commute now as they are very good at filtering out constant amplitude white noise (such as engine hums), which helps me to focus on my reading. Unfortunately I sometimes miss my stops now :D

Re: Noisy Coworkers And Other Sounds Are A Distraction In Workplace

#43

Post by pjc50 »

post_break wrote: post #6

Coworker who is extremely loud on the phone. I get 0 work done when she's on the phone. She's so loud I can't hear people when I'm on the phone. We have an "open door" policy at work so if I close my door to my own office it looks weird. If I tell her she's being too loud I look like an asshole. We're moving to a new building and I'm going to be on a different floor than her and I can't wait. So many years of listeni…

That seems like a strange environment when you get the enormous privilege of a door but are discouraged from using it. :(

Re: Noisy Coworkers And Other Sounds Are A Distraction In Workplace

#44

Post by pjc50 »

ryandrake wrote: post #26

Different strokes for different folks. I'm probably the only person on HN that prefers open office workspaces. I currently have an office to myself and it's so lonely and isolating. I think I'd go crazy working all day without human interaction, so I hardly ever use it. And, no, chat isn't an adequate substitute. I'll generally charge up my laptop and go out and work in a break room or some other common area with act…

I think the best environment I had was when there were 3 of us in an office. Enough company to talk to and collaborate with, not enough to prevent work getting done.

Re: Noisy Coworkers And Other Sounds Are A Distraction In Workplace

#45

Post by mgkimsal »

haddr wrote: post #24

Couldn't agree more on the article. Recently they put next to us a group of people who is 50% of their time on the phone. While some of them try to speak low, other just yell. It is probably the most frustrating work setup I experienced in my career. It is really distracting.

i post the same comments every time this topic comes up, but it really bugs me.

the same people making these layout/seating decisions do not subject themselves to the same setup. have 2-3 sales guys on phone calls all day long in a room with the CFO trying to get his work done - he'd go insane, or ... have extremely low productivity. why do people think everyone else is different from them?

Re: Noisy Coworkers And Other Sounds Are A Distraction In Workplace

#46

Post by mtviewdave »

Swizec wrote: post #40
zzalpha wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think a book that cites sources is immediately more trustworthy, to me, than companies following fashionable trends in office design without a critical eye toward impacts on employee performance. Show me one, just one , example of a company moving to open office space only after evaluating performance impact (or, conversely, immediately evaluating the impact after such a change), and that would be something to look…

Maybe they do all those studies and decide that the hit in productivity is worth the cheaper open space? Maybe individual performance just doesn't matter that much? I'd bet that the bigger the company, the less it matters how effective individuals are and the more it matters how effective teams are. As much as I love working from home or an office or whatever, team productivity is better when people who work together…

I've worked for several big companies (though not Facebook, Google, Apple, or others in that class). None of them showed any interest in analyzing developer productivity, much less looking for ways to increase it. My gut instinct is that developer productivity is hard to measure, real estate costs are easy to measure, so you end up with 500 people in a noisy environment doing the work that 100 could do in a quiet environment.

I also suspect there's a status thing going on. People working on the floor are lower status than people with offices, and I suspect some execs find status signaling more desirable than productivity.

Re: Noisy Coworkers And Other Sounds Are A Distraction In Workplace

#47

Post by _raoulcousins »

rdiddly wrote: post #25

Active noise-cancelling headphones plus a white noise generator, is where it's at. These are the best headphones I've used: https://amzn.com/B00X9KV0HU They come in Apple- or Android-compatible versions. They won't cancel everything. In general they're great with anything constant (hums/motors/fans etc.) but the more impulsive (in the physics sense) a sound wave is, the more of it seeps through. Human speech I find i…

The noise cancelling is incredible on these but I wish they had a replaceable cord like the over the ear version.

Re: Noisy Coworkers And Other Sounds Are A Distraction In Workplace

#48

Post by ghurtado »

Swizec wrote: post #33
ryandrake wrote: post #26

Different strokes for different folks. I'm probably the only person on HN that prefers open office workspaces. I currently have an office to myself and it's so lonely and isolating. I think I'd go crazy working all day without human interaction, so I hardly ever use it. And, no, chat isn't an adequate substitute. I'll generally charge up my laptop and go out and work in a break room or some other common area with act…

Maybe you're an extrovert? Being around people gives you energy. For us introverts it's the opposite. Being around people drains us of energy. Even if we enjoy their company and enjoy social interaction . It's tiring. There's probably no silver bullet for office design. People are different, as you say.

I don't know why you got downvoted. I'm a software engineer and I identify with every sentence in your comment. I suspect I'm far from the only one.

Re: Noisy Coworkers And Other Sounds Are A Distraction In Workplace

#49

Post by barleymash »

Xcelerate wrote: post #13
post_break wrote: post #6

Coworker who is extremely loud on the phone. I get 0 work done when she's on the phone. She's so loud I can't hear people when I'm on the phone. We have an "open door" policy at work so if I close my door to my own office it looks weird. If I tell her she's being too loud I look like an asshole. We're moving to a new building and I'm going to be on a different floor than her and I can't wait. So many years of listeni…

As a graduate student, I was lucky to have an advisor that let me work on research from anywhere as long as I was getting stuff done. I tried to work in the office a few times, and a couple loud people made it almost impossible for me to accomplish anything. Coffee shops, despite the presence of ambient conversations, were much more effective for me. I haven't quite figured out the difference between coffee shop nois…

Have you tried coffitivity.com? Lol every time I tell people I use this, they look at me sideways. I discovered it a few years ago, and still use it just about everyday.

It's basically just ambient noises from a coffee shop, and you can choose a couple of different "environments". I pop that on in my headphones, and layer on some instrumental music. I love it.

Re: Noisy Coworkers And Other Sounds Are A Distraction In Workplace

#50

Post by ethanbond »

ThePhysicist wrote: post #42

The company I'm currently working at bought everyone some top-of-the-line Bose noise-canceling headphones for the same reason, as we have an open plan office and coworkers can be chatty sometimes. And while the noise canceling is far from being perfect, it really makes it much easier to stay focused when working. I even wear them on my commute now as they are very good at filtering out constant amplitude white noise…

Not sure if you've heard of this nifty-as-hell device, but a company called Doppler Labs made Here and is now taking preorders for Here One.

Essentially little wireless earbuds that take this whole noise-cancelling thing to a whole new level. I have the first ones and they're pretty remarkable, already preordered the new ones which extend well beyond simple novelty.

You can turn down engine hum, but keep voices/stop announcements at full volume. The new ones apparently also let you layer in music from your phone, which was the obvious feature ommission from the first version. Allegedly the new one they're also playing with directional filtering, live language translation (?!), ML-based baby/siren/annoying coworker cancelling, and tons of other stuff. I haven't been this excited about a technology for years, as you might be able to tell :)

https://hereplus.me

Post reply on HN