Privacy In An Office Situation
Disruptive and disconcerting noise in the workplace definitely hampers employee creativity. Lots of offices have had to work at finding ways to give their staffs what could be termed "acoustic privacy". And as more office space is constructed without individual rooms or even full cubicles, noise level professionals are beginning to recognize the serious distractions caused by chattering co-workers.
A worker's privacy, and therefore comfort level, decreases as the noise around him increases. Overheard conversation between colleagues can be most distracting. Worker's put more energy into drowning out distractions than they put into the job they are attempting to do.
The increase in volume has coincided with the elimination of dividing walls in offices and the rise of the open-plan office, as well as increasing numbers of workers per square foot. Privacy is an obvious casualty. The driving factor, of course, has been cutting expenses. It's much cheaper to leave out the partitions, and the drive for higher employees' densities has encouraged this advance.
Architects, clients and designers, who favor a minimalist style, have made the situation much more difficult. While solid surfaces like exposed brick, marble or glass are stylish, they have the problem of reflecting sound instead of absorbing it. Acoustics take a backseat to aesthetics in the majority of office internal layouts.
Servers as well as other workplace apparatus can be set up with acoustic hoods but the primary concern is over disruption caused by conversation. Some noise is predictable and efforts to absorb block and cover noise are the best course of action at the office. Of these three, covering works best.
To get the largest amount of privacy for the lowest cost you would want to use covering which is known to the general public as "white noise." Although it works great as a stand alone product it is recommended that you use sound absorbent wall panels or raise the height of the cubical walls to increase privacy.
Many workers have a difficult time being creative at their jobs because of unrelated and distracting noises. Privacy is an obvious casualty. It is hard for companies to ensure their workers acoustic work space. With more open-plan office now than ever before experts are finding that conversational distractions can also cause work place problems as well. While you'll probably need to add sound-absorbent wall or ceiling panels, or raise your cubicle walls, sound masking is the logical place to start, and often provides enough protection on its own to do the job. Search for 'HIPAA' to learn more.
Published May 28th, 2008
Filed in Business
