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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

#481

Post by fatnoah »

Ragib_Zaman wrote: post #440
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…

I also hate external noise. Here's my nuke option. 1) Sony XM3 headphones. They are the 2nd most comfortable after the Bose headphones and have the best NC. So far, nothing you haven't done before. 2) High quality foam earplugs. I have the Mack's Ultra Soft plugs, with 32 decibel noise reduction rating. Anything with 27 decibel reduction or above should be good enough though. You may need to alternate between a few b…

>3) Pink Noise.

I worked in an office where they put speakers in the ceiling to radiate such noise. It was odd because no notice was given and it just happened. For the first week or two, we all thought it was airflow noise from the HVAC system until we noticed speakers in the ceiling.

It was effective, though. It did reduce the apparent noise, though our 15 person office wasn't terribly loud to begin with. An interesting side effect was that conversations, when they did occur, got louder because the noise made low volume conversations difficult to hear.

Re: Office noise bothers some people more than others

#482

Post by Kaiyou »

ken wrote: post #387
waterhouse wrote: post #350

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your comment seems a bit tongue in cheek and you probably know, but anyway... Theoretically, the brain can get used to certain kinds of regular noise and filter it out, and then, if the disruption is a small sound that occurs irregularly... if you add constant white noise that's louder than the sound, then the sound should get quite literally lost in the noise. There is an analogy to light that actually applies. Imag…

> Theoretically, the brain can What “theory” is this? Because I’ve tried it (not by choice) in practice, many times, over the decades, and never found it to work at all . I’m genuinely curious why people think it could ever work, when empirically it does not. Theoretically the brain will adapt to working while hanging 100’ in the air, too. I adapt to height fairly quickly and don’t mind working up in the air. Many pe…

It's probably a "works for me" mindset accompanied with a mental note of "bug closed".

Re: Office noise bothers some people more than others

#484

Post by cheese4242 »

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…

You are administered random electric shocks throughout the day but ackchyually there is a fair chance that your core annoyance is something else.

Re: Office noise bothers some people more than others

#486

Post by knopkop_ »

mffnbs wrote: post #293
i2shar wrote: post #203

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have the exact same trouble with mouth noises. I couldn't explain the extreme irrational anger I felt when a co-worker was chewing on something while others hardly even noticed. It used to be very unsettling before I came know that it was a known condition with an official name[1]. While knowing that hasn't cured it, if I encounter someone making these noises, to avoid outbursts, I am now quick to put on headphones…

Yep, I become outwardly violent when I hear specific sounds. I have to physically leave the area to regain composure.

> physically leave the area to regain composure

This is what I have to do when I hear someone whistling in the office. Also other sounds and behaviours, i.e. the guy sitting next to me started clipping his nails at his desk one morning. I had to go stand outside for an hour before I calmed down.

Re: Office noise bothers some people more than others

#487

Post by magduf »

learc83 wrote: post #392
AmericanChopper wrote: post #300

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, because non-open-plan offices pretty much don’t exist anymore.

There are plenty of companies without open layouts, add remote workers to that and self selection is a big factor. Add to that the possibility that people aren't comfortable complaining to someone who is very obviously pro open layout. Also every survey I can find says that employees don't want open office layouts by a large margin. There's clearly something else going on beyond autistic programmers complaining.

I don't know why AmericanChopper keeps getting modded down; his points are absolutely valid.

I'm not a fan of open offices either, but I've worked in a bunch of different places over the years, and he's right on many points. There aren't many places left that don't have open offices of some kind, and I have not met many people who complained about them. Usually, I'm the biggest complainer. I would take surveys with a grain of salt; of course complainers like me are going to be happy to voice their opinions in surveys like this, while other people probably don't bother taking the survey. I also find that my younger coworkers seem to really enjoy the open layouts. At my current workplace where I work in a closed lab, the complaint is about the lack of windows, not the noise or the lack of privacy. Some people will make comments about certain teams having meetings that are extremely loud, or about how quiet the lab is when those teams are in their meeting, so there does seem to be some desire for a little more quietness, but these same people have no trouble having a fairly noisy conversation while people are trying to work. In my view, Americans are just loud and extroverted in general, and this extends to the current workers in this field.

Re: Office noise bothers some people more than others

#488

Post by tenebrisalietum »

asdf21 wrote: post #251
tenebrisalietum wrote: post #215

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Abstracting. Humans like to abstract things into manageable portions.

Same difference, no?

I didn't lie to my manager, I presented him an abstract view for quick and effective decision making without having to be "in the weeds".

Re: Office noise bothers some people more than others

#489

Post by pavel_lishin »

ken wrote: post #337
zeta0134 wrote: post #214

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I know this isn't a great solution, but could you try a lightweight pair of headphones, and some relaxing music? Not particularly heavy music mind, but just something you can leave in the background. Maybe a movie soundtrack. I use videogame OSTs but that's not everyone's cup of tea. This would maybe make the headphone issue more bearable (lightweight - much less uncomfortable for long periods), and the goal isn't to…

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.

> I’ve never understood how some people believe that the problem of too much noise could be solved by adding more noise.

They probably believe it because it works for them. Because it works for me.

Re: Office noise bothers some people more than others

#490

Post by wilsonnb3 »

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)?

I've never had any complaints but I use a keyboard with Cherry MX silent switches. Highly recommended if you are worried about the noise, although they are harder to find on keyboards than other switches.

The guy I sit next to uses a mechanical Logitech keyboard with their custom switches and I've never heard any complaints about that one, either.

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