I have a pair of Bose 700's that I bought in anticipation of a long hospital stay, and they were tremendous. For an office setting I think I'd go with the Sony

I have a pair of Bose 700's that I bought in anticipation of a long hospital stay, and they were tremendous. For an office setting I think I'd go with the Sony version instead however, they have the "turn off noise cancellation when someone is calling your name" feature that probably is a necessity in an office setting. Either way, you can't imagine how effective these devices are these days until you try it, as you said, they just turn off the outside world to a great extent. Headphones are also a signal to any reasonable person that you don't wish to be unnecessarily disturbed.