9 ms·

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 som

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 block out all sound, but rather to give your mind something else to focus on from an auditory standpoint. I find, personally, that having a musical anchor makes the task of mentally filtering out the noise much easier; I end up subconsciously following the melody and grooving with the rhythm a bit, but because there's no lyrics, it doesn't pull me out of the task at hand. Everyone's different, so what works for me might not work for you, but maybe give it a shot for a week and see how effective it is. Worth a try at least.

birdyrooster 7y ago
No. The noise is the businesses responsibility to resolve, not the individual employee. We need spaces which take the needs of employees into account first when creating work spaces, not finance people masquerading as office space gurus.
- meddlepal 7y ago
  Sort of, the noise is also your problem to solve if you want to be productive and keep your job in the long term. It's not just the companies problem. Especially as more companies move to this model it's not like you can just leave for a different gig with quieter space as it might not exist. Therefore you must also adapt.
  - birdyrooster 7y ago
    If by adapt you mean quit, then it wouldn’t be the first time.
- Aeolun 7y ago
  It should be, but what do you think the chances are that that is actually going to happen? Therefore it falls to yourself to improve your environment.
- jefftk 7y ago
  > The noise is the businesses responsibility to resolve, not the individual employee. This may be a reasonable view for a large company, but they're talking about their experience at a three-person startup. At that scale if there's something that needs to be different you have to step up and change it yourself, and set the culture for the company you're building.
- CydeWeys 7y ago
  In a three person company, every problem is every person's responsibility to solve. Especially if you're the only one having that problem!
  - seppin 7y ago
    This is one of the reasons I love small companies
  - mytailorisrich 7y ago
    Whatever the size of the company, noisy environment is usually the consequence of the choice of office space, as exemplified here. An employee cannot change this, only suggest.
ken 7y ago
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.
- stock_toaster 7y ago
  ha. This comment really brightened my day (pun intended). Thank you for that.
- waterhouse 7y ago
  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. Imagine a small green LED in your field of vision that flashes now and then. Might be distracting. But now imagine the room is 100x brighter than that small green LED. You might be unable to perceive the LED anymore. (However, if the problem is, as you state, that there is "too much light", then, yeah, adding more light wouldn't help unless you could somehow create destructive interference.) Whether all this actually works for a specific person is a different matter. I personally hate listening to white noise, so that wouldn't help me. Perhaps other kinds of noise could work.
  - wenc 7y ago
    White noise is actually very harsh. When people say "white noise" they usually mean softer variants such as brown noise. I sleep to brown noise (have done so for the past 8 years -- so this is not a fad thing for me), and I use a different brown noise with headphones at work to help me concentrate in a noisy office environment. I use Noisli profiles to generate these noises, but any number of apps will do the job. I won't claim it works for everyone, but this combination works very well for me. p.s. Ear plugs at work also work amazingly well. Low tech and effective.
  - 7y ago

birdyrooster 7y ago

No. The noise is the businesses responsibility to resolve, not the individual employee. We need spaces which take the needs of employees into account first when creating work spaces, not finance people masquerading as office space gurus.

meddlepal 7y ago
Sort of, the noise is also your problem to solve if you want to be productive and keep your job in the long term. It's not just the companies problem. Especially as more companies move to this model it's not like you can just leave for a different gig with quieter space as it might not exist. Therefore you must also adapt.
- birdyrooster 7y ago
  If by adapt you mean quit, then it wouldn’t be the first time.
Aeolun 7y ago
It should be, but what do you think the chances are that that is actually going to happen? Therefore it falls to yourself to improve your environment.
jefftk 7y ago
> The noise is the businesses responsibility to resolve, not the individual employee. This may be a reasonable view for a large company, but they're talking about their experience at a three-person startup. At that scale if there's something that needs to be different you have to step up and change it yourself, and set the culture for the company you're building.
CydeWeys 7y ago
In a three person company, every problem is every person's responsibility to solve. Especially if you're the only one having that problem!
- seppin 7y ago
  This is one of the reasons I love small companies
- mytailorisrich 7y ago
  Whatever the size of the company, noisy environment is usually the consequence of the choice of office space, as exemplified here. An employee cannot change this, only suggest.

ken 7y ago

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.

stock_toaster 7y ago
ha. This comment really brightened my day (pun intended). Thank you for that.
waterhouse 7y ago
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. Imagine a small green LED in your field of vision that flashes now and then. Might be distracting. But now imagine the room is 100x brighter than that small green LED. You might be unable to perceive the LED anymore. (However, if the problem is, as you state, that there is "too much light", then, yeah, adding more light wouldn't help unless you could somehow create destructive interference.) Whether all this actually works for a specific person is a different matter. I personally hate listening to white noise, so that wouldn't help me. Perhaps other kinds of noise could work.
- wenc 7y ago
  White noise is actually very harsh. When people say "white noise" they usually mean softer variants such as brown noise. I sleep to brown noise (have done so for the past 8 years -- so this is not a fad thing for me), and I use a different brown noise with headphones at work to help me concentrate in a noisy office environment. I use Noisli profiles to generate these noises, but any number of apps will do the job. I won't claim it works for everyone, but this combination works very well for me. p.s. Ear plugs at work also work amazingly well. Low tech and effective.
- 7y ago