Office noise bothers some people more than others
1–10 of 509 posts
Re: Office noise bothers some people more than others
#2I 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.
Re: Office noise bothers some people more than others
#3Constant 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 just needs a good, deep cough but for whatever reason they won't, and are constantly doing this "Ah-hmmmm" sound. Once doesn't bother me. Every 30 seconds is maddening.
More generally, I think this can be extrapolated to frequently recurring sounds with unpredictable intervals.
Re: Office noise bothers some people more than others
#4I 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.
I think there are many factors that should be controlled for in these evaluations. I know for me getting enough sleep and being in good health make a big difference in how sensitive I am to environmental distractions.
Re: Office noise bothers some people more than others
#5I 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.
Out of curiosity, how are you defining the two? I ask because a lot of people tend to define them at "enjoys interactions with (larger numbers of) people" vs "does not enjoy interactions with (larger numbers of) people". The definition I like is that an extrovert gains (emotional) energy from interacting with people, while for an introvert those same interactions are draining. Both can enjoy the interactions, it's just a matter of how long they can sustain it.
Re: Office noise bothers some people more than others
#6The disturbance of sound is the invasiveness it has on your sphere of control. It forces your control of your present attention to be taken away from you against your will by others.
This is why you might like the 'noise' produced by you voluntarily as in e.g. playing a 'busy office noise ambience' from YouTube through your headphones or speakers , while hating the 'real' office noises around you or even the same track played by your coworker.
Re: Office noise bothers some people more than others
#7People put with noise far more than they have to. Here are a few of my experiences:
- moved into an office where a very noisy dot-matrix printer printed out every opening and closing of a door in the building. Nobody ever looked at the printouts. I unplugged it and put it in a dumpster. Nobody ever complained.
- working for an oil company, my boss was sitting next to a big HP plotter that was horribly noisy - he wore industrial-strength hearing protectors all the time, which didn't help if you wanted to phone him. I suggested that moving the plotter would be a good idea (there were lots of places to put it), but as usual with engineering companies, a sensible solution is not top of the list.
- howling air conditioning - that place I left after a couple of weeks.
Bottom line, there is no way you have to put up with noise - stand up for yourselves and just say "no".
Re: Office noise bothers some people more than others
#8I see no mention of genetic predisposition to hating office noise. 23andme looks for a marker that indicates hating the sound of chewing, misophonia. Maybe something similar is at play for other noises.
Re: Office noise bothers some people more than others
#9I 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.
Out of curiosity, how are you defining the two? I ask because a lot of people tend to define them at "enjoys interactions with (larger numbers of) people" vs "does not enjoy interactions with (larger numbers of) people". The definition I like is that an extrovert gains (emotional) energy from interacting with people, while for an introvert those same interactions are draining. Both can enjoy the interactions, it's ju…
I think of it in terms of energy gaining/draining, but I meant more from the "big 5" test perspective, as well as the other groups of personality tests you can take like DISC and Meters-Briggs.
In general I'm fairly skeptical of personality tests, beyond just intro/extro version, for the similar reason that a) I can test vastly different based on my mood and b) people tend to tie their self image to the results and you end up with a tail-wagging-dog situation.
Re: Office noise bothers some people more than others
#10People put with noise far more than they have to. Here are a few of my experiences: - moved into an office where a very noisy dot-matrix printer printed out every opening and closing of a door in the building. Nobody ever looked at the printouts. I unplugged it and put it in a dumpster. Nobody ever complained. - working for an oil company, my boss was sitting next to a big HP plotter that was horribly noisy - he wore…
The linked article doesn't mention noise as the subject of the article - the word appears once on the page. Are you in the right place?