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I think open-plan offices work if you have the right kind of HVAC system. Seriously, hear me out: I work in an open-plan office. I didn't realize it when I fir
by mortenjorck 15y ago
I think open-plan offices work if you have the right kind of HVAC system. Seriously, hear me out:
I work in an open-plan office. I didn't realize it when I first started, but there's actually quite a bit of white noise from the HVAC system. Maybe it's the nature of white noise that it wasn't immediately apparent.
One day, about a month after I had started, someone changed the thermostat settings. The constant white noise shut off. In the silence, the sense of space of the office immediately changed. Every footstep on the loft floor was suddenly audible. All the design conversations and dev pairing suddenly seemed much nearer, the words much harder to ignore. It was like the office had shrunk.
We tried a few hours this way, and finally set the HVAC system back to how it had been, filling the office once again with a constant, hushing whoosh. The space was back to normal.
- recursive 15y agoMy employer actually has white noise generators that intentionally create this effect.
- mkramlich 15y agothe polite term for that is the marketing department ;)
- albertsun 15y agoEven better, our open plan office purportedly has active noise canceling systems similar to what are in noise canceling headphones built into the ceiling. This is to dampen noise from elsewhere in the office and keep distractions elsewhere from being too distracting.
- machina 15y agoThis actually a design consideration in HVAC engineering, from what I know. There's usually a compromise between flatter ducts, which consume more energy, produce more noise but take up less vertical space, and squarer ducts, which are quieter, more efficient but take up more space. However going too far towards large, square ducts can reduce the background noise produced below the level that many office workers are used to.
- Drbble 15y agoHVAC can ruin private offices too! Consider the common case where 5 Private offices share HVAC, but some have windows, and some face west, some south. Guarantee that everyone is burning or freezing. But hey, you save $30/month per person on AC, so it's a bargain!