What bothers people most about their workplace? After years of asking that exact question, the answer is often noise disruption. And not just any noise – it’s other people’s voices.
People are quick to blame their environment, particularly when the office is open plan. But if employees can’t do their job properly, we should fix it.
Solid walls work, but for most businesses, open space is here to stay.
The economies and flexibility are irresistible, so people try to physically reduce noise with acoustic baffles, soft furniture, and sound-absorbing ceilings.
But it doesn’t work, because the more silent the space, the more disruptive the conversation next door.
A quiet office can be much more challenging than a noisy one, because a certain level of ambient noise is actually very helpful.
Planes, trains and cars are noisy, but we can still read a book, write a letter or even sleep. A noisy restaurant can be a perfect place for a private conversation.
The problem is not decibels, but the distracting clarity of discernible speech.
A confusion of voices at a crowded reception is not distracting, but the sound of one person on the phone in a train carriage can make life impossible.
The same applies at work.
In order to concentrate around others, we need their words to be dissolved into an acoustic soup.
Now, thanks to technology, we have another way to control noise.