Office Noise Can Create Stress And Have Negative Impact
Imagine that you must prepare an important report concerning your company's sales over the last three months and on the preferences of your customers as determined by your company's sales force. On the day that you must prepare that report, you will make sure to be well rested and to be in the office early. You certainly do not want to have to deal with irrelevant and uninteresting distractions while you're preparing that report, such as a colleague who yammers endlessly about the odd date that she was on last weekend.
No matter where it originates, office noise is detrimental. For one thing, it interferes with employee productivity. In addition, office noise may trigger stress in employees, possibly even snowballing into more debilitating illnesses, including depression.
Having said that, though, a majority of employees have to deal with office noise sooner or later. Often, this noise presents itself in the form of chattering colleagues, who are discussing almost everything except work related issues. If you're in this situation, and you'd like to extract yourself from it, the best approach is to be sympathetic but direct, and to inform them that their discussions are distracting you from your job. Often, your colleagues will apologize and relocate their conversation.
You can politely ask your IT staff to investigate sources of noise if a printer or fax machine near your workspace seems to be malfunctioning. One can assume that the unwanted noise is due to a malfunction, because companies spend millions making these electronics "noise-free". If qualified professionals service the machines, this can help reduce the noise.
Even though most of us can't imagine getting through the day at the office without the occasional cup of coffee at hand, if the office noise that keeps you from concentrating on your job stems from that indispensable coffee dispenser, you're going to have to bring it to the attention of the administrative staff.
It's not useful to have a noisy office, no matter where the noise is coming from. There are plenty of inexpensive methods to control noise, and most of these can be applied to an office setting. For example, sound absorbent panels and high walls for cubicles can minimize the distance that noise can travel, whether the noise is coming from humans or from machines. Placing conference rooms or cafeterias away from work areas is also useful. Finally, introducing white noise or sound masking is a very effective way to solve the problem. White noise can cover the problem noise with ambient, low-level sounds, and a new white noise system can be inserted into most office design formats. Basically, the goal is to keep office noise levels under control.
Office noise interferes with employee productivity. In addition, it may trigger stress in employees, possibly even snowballing into more debilitating illnesses, including depression. It is difficult to work in a noisy office, no matter how the noise originates. There are numerous inexpensive sound masking systems available for the majority of offices. Panels that absorb sound and extra-tall cubicle walls are useful in reducing noise are some of the commonly used masking tools. The most appropriate time to think about introducing masking technologies is during the office design, but modern systems can be retrofitted into most work areas with relative ease.
Published May 29th, 2008
