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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

#451

Post by [deleted] »

BurningFrog wrote: post #342
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…

DISCLAIMER: I'm not saying this to be a jerk. This is not uncommon. There is a fair chance that your core annoyance is something else. That is, if you somehow got a perfectly sounds proofed workroom of your own, you would after a while realize that you're still irritable, find it difficult to concentrate etc. Often, we don't want to face our real problems and assign discomfort to some external thing we have no power…

[deleted]

Re: Office noise bothers some people more than others

#452

Post by GoblinSlayer »

vraivroo wrote: post #262
noelsusman wrote: post #241

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This baffles me. There are so many alternatives to working for a startup with no real office in a dense, expensive city.

Yes, you can also work for an established company with cramped offices in a dense, expensive city. Or you can take a massive pay cut, tank your career, and go live in the middle of nowhere. Sounds great.

I think, you can ask to take no pay cut: it's a win for the company too, if you move the company will have you an could hire another employee on the free place. I moved into the middle of nowhere without a pay cut.

Re: Office noise bothers some people more than others

#453

Post by ddsea »

x3ro wrote: post #430
ken wrote: post #337

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’ve never understood how some people believe that the problem of too much noise could be solved by adding more noise. There’s too much light in my eyes, and dark glasses are uncomfortable. Well, have you tried shining another light at your face? Maybe a different color of light would help.

It may seem contradictory, but for me it actually helps. I use a macOS app (Noizio) to get a mixture of different sounds (rain/thunder/fire) and, in combination with noise cancelling headphones, it is the only thing I've found that allows me to thoroughly concentrate in a noisy space.

Same here. I found out that music of any kind not only doesn't do the trick for me, but is counterproductive - it distracts me from trying to focus on the task at hand.

Re: Office noise bothers some people more than others

#454

Post by sandos »

lsc wrote: post #447
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…

>The noise has gotten bad enough that I'm considering quitting my job and running away to a small town. so, uh, my own solution? requires money, but is probably cheaper than giving up the big city wages (depending on your situation and remote-work opportunities.) 1. giant yellow passive hearing protectors at work with soft music. Personally, I still kinda suspect that active noise canceling is just placebo. (I'm joki…

I totally agree that noise cancelling for office noise is useless, it works mostly for low frequencies but the "annoying" part of sound from speaking is much higher than at least my headphones can block out. Passive blocking can have even better blocking of the more important frequencies imo.

Re: Office noise bothers some people more than others

#455

Post by steve1977 »

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…

The problem here is also that it's usually the concentrators who do the actual productive work. The communicators are often just intermediaries for the results of the concentrators.

Re: Office noise bothers some people more than others

#456

Post by steve1977 »

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.

The question is if these communicator types actually get stuff done or if they just freeload on the work done by the introverted people but are more visible then those.

Re: Office noise bothers some people more than others

#457

Post by krzat »

flocial wrote: post #361
navs wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Considering buying the airpods for that same reason. I have a pair of WF-1000xm3’s, the earbud equivalent of Sony’s Bose QC competitor. But they’re bulky and it causes me pain wearing them for longer than an hour. Tried multiple ear tips and even bought some comply foam tips for additional noise isolation and comfort.

I switched from WF-1000xm3s to AirPods Pro and it was the best decision ever (I still love my WMs). They are lighter and much more comfortable. Usually I can't wear in ears more than a couple hours but I could leave APs in all day. There are less connection drops, no voice announcements like "noise cancellation activated" just a discrete blip, the transition between modes is quite smooth, and the "pass through mode"…

Only if they had better battery... I don't want to buy new expensive headphones every 2 years.

Re: Office noise bothers some people more than others

#458

Post by AmericanChopper »

jarofgreen wrote: post #435
sky_rw wrote: post #420

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you truly have never met an eng that complains about open office spaces, I submit that you have not worked in an environment where engineers feel safe to voice their true personal opinions.

Agreed. Especially if when one kinda did once, they were told they might be autistic. Not that there is anything wrong with autism, but you can see how armchair psychiatry would put other people off discussing issues ever again.

Where did you get the idea that I go around telling my coworkers that they’re autistic? I have somebody very close to me quite seriously affected by autism, and I simply see a very strong parallel between how they struggle with sensory issues in perfectly normal environments, and the HN trope of complaining about how open offices are too loud. I’ve worked in more than a hundred offices as a consultant, and the only one that was loud enough to be distracting was a particularly raucous sales floor. Contrary to the baseless conclusions you’ve drawn, the offices I’ve worked in where people enjoyed open-plan the most were the ones with the most open and supportive cultures. The real reason people tend to dislike open plan is screen privacy. If noise is the reason you don’t like it, then you either work in a very loud office, or you’re much more sensitive to sensory input than the average person.

Re: Office noise bothers some people more than others

#459

Post by Cthulhu_ »

BurningFrog wrote: post #342
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…

DISCLAIMER: I'm not saying this to be a jerk. This is not uncommon. There is a fair chance that your core annoyance is something else. That is, if you somehow got a perfectly sounds proofed workroom of your own, you would after a while realize that you're still irritable, find it difficult to concentrate etc. Often, we don't want to face our real problems and assign discomfort to some external thing we have no power…

I don't think that's true to be honest; sensory overstimulation is a thing with a lot of people, and workspaces should adjust to it accordingly. (there's also sensory processing disorder where it can get so bad people have a breakdown in the grocery store) However, there is also understimulation - some people can't work in a quiet office, as the article itself also points out.

Long story short, a workspace has to cater to multiple different people - shocking, I know.

Re: Office noise bothers some people more than others

#460

Post by FrojoS »

magduf wrote: post #159
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 pur…

Not true anymore for modern NC headphones. They will suppress speech significantly when active.
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