4 ms·

In my open office, I currently code next to some project managers, who spend all day on the phone negotiating. This is a bit bad, but I just wear PPE Ear Defen

by shubb 13y ago

In my open office, I currently code next to some project managers, who spend all day on the phone negotiating. This is a bit bad, but I just wear PPE Ear Defenders all day, on top of in ear headphones. With both of these, I can't hear a thing. The eerie quiet is great for short bursts of concentration, but it also means I can turn my music up to a normal level without worrying about escaping noise annoying my colleagues. It looks very nerdy, and people need to email me or wave if they want something (which cuts down interruptions a lot). I take them off about half the time so as to be social, which I guess is like leaving an office door open. Sort of sad it's necessary though. Hope this helps people with a similar situation. Ear defenders, buy good ones -> http://goo.gl/NlgnPv http://goo.gl/NlgnPv

amag 13y ago
Unfortunately for me it's not that simple since I'm also very distracted by visual noise. Someone who passes by in my peripheral view can bring me out of flow as will the feeling of having someone behind my back do. I recently was fortunate enough to have my own office for a while and I haven't been as productive since...well, since last time I had my own office some five years back. It's an awesome feeling to enter flow almost as you enter your room... It's interesting to think back at my 15+ years long career and realize that the times when I've been most productive coincides with the times I've had my own office.
- shubb 13y ago
  Sounds like you need to find a way of working remote (at that company or somewhere else). I figure if much of your life is spent at work, life is too short to work somewhere you can't achieve your best.
- pmjordan 13y ago
  I'm the same. Can you put some pot plants to the left and right behind your screen? (more socially acceptable than other barriers) Request a second or larger monitor for your work? You can argue that it'll improve your productivity; you don't have to tell them that's because it'll block out your FOV, not because you actually want to display stuff on it… Another thing that would help is moving to a different desk, but I'm guessing that might be a bit more difficult to negotiate. (These days I'm self employed and work from home but that's what I did when I worked in an open-plan office. Also, if you can, come in to work before everyone else, while it's still very quiet. Usually more acceptable than coming in later than everyone else and staying later.)
  - randallsquared 13y ago
    Perhaps "potted" plants. :)
    - pmjordan 13y ago
      Hah, yes, sorry - I'm not encouraging cannabis growing in the office. Pretty sure that's a standard name for a houseplant in UK English, didn't make the connection with the US term at all when I was typing it.
  - amag 13y ago
    Thanks for the tips. The sad thing is that even if you look at it economically it doesn't make sense. Say that in order for each employee to have their own office you need 10m2 extra space per employee. Where I live, that would amount to ~2.5% of the employees salary, i.e. if a private office makes your emplyees more than 2.5% more productive you're profiting from private offices. In my experience my productivity boost when working in a private office amounts to maybe as much as 25% or more.
    - pmjordan 13y ago
      Oh, definitely. But then there are plenty of other ways of increasing programmer productivity which don't look like busywork so non-programmer managers won't have them. I guess try to get out of employment situations like that...
yajoe 13y ago
Even though I don't own a gun, I own two sets of ear protection for this very reason! Just as effective as Bose but for $30, could be worn throughout flights (before recent FAA changes), and needed no batteries. Highly recommend this option as well. Edit - best-seller on amazon: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00009LI4K http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00009LI4K
utefan001 13y ago
I recently bought Audio-Technica ATH-M50 studio headphones. Highly recommend! Even with the music turned way down, I barely hear other people talking. If I don't need to be in hyper concentration mode, I use regular head phones. Amazon link to the Audio-Technica studio headphones--> http://www.amazon.com/Audio-Technica-ATH-M50-Professional-Monitor-Headphones/dp/B000ULAP4U/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1385058335&sr=1-1&keywords=audio+technica http://www.amazon.com/Audio-Technica-ATH-M50-Professional-Mo...
- shubb 13y ago
  Oh yeah, if you look for 'recording headphones' you can find regular headphones rated not to leak sound. Apparently it's pretty important during recording sessions. I liked the look of these: http://www.extremeheadphones.com/ http://www.extremeheadphones.com/
- krakensden 13y ago
  Don't forget the blue-collar alternative: http://www.amazon.com/3M-WorkTunes-Digital-Protector-Compatible/dp/B003D7LX3U/ref=sr_1_23?s=hi&ie=UTF8&qid=1385101462&sr=1-23&keywords=peltor+earmuff http://www.amazon.com/3M-WorkTunes-Digital-Protector-Compati...
mjolk 13y ago
>This is a bit bad, but I just wear PPE Ear Defenders all day, on top of in ear headphones. With both of these, I can't hear a thing. Good lord, this is not an elegant solution.
- masklinn 13y ago
  It also really does not work for people with ear problems (I am one, I can't wear headphones or earplugs for more than 10mn at a time anymore, it starts hurting like the blazes and I have to remove them for a few hours)
  - mjolk 13y ago
    >It also really does not work for people with ear problems Have you ever worn over-the-ear headphones for 10 hours? It's uncomfortable. And that's not even the worst part. Drowning out coworker nonsense with loud music is permanently damaging to your hearing. Focusing on writing some crappy Ruby isn't worth sacrificing a sense.
    - masklinn 13y ago
      > Have you ever worn over-the-ear headphones for 10 hours? It's uncomfortable. I can barely wear 'phones for 10 minutes. Because it physically hurts. I have worn 'phones for hours on end a decade or so ago (my weapons of choice were K271s before my ear issues flared up and made that a non-option). They could get pretty hot around the ears, but they were very comfortable. > Drowning out coworker nonsense with loud music is permanently damaging to your hearing. There are cans and buds with good isolation (or noise-cancelling).
    - bashinator 13y ago
      I would bet that the highly-blocking in-canal earbuds are actually less damaging than cheap ones that sit on top of your ear. Reason being that without any external noise, you can turn the level down on the music and get the same perceptual loudness. I know for a fact that when I got some nice etymotic earbuds (-20dB of outside sound), I was able to turn the level down from my average of about 70%, to more like 40-50% on my ipod.
chiph 13y ago
I use Shure earphones (SE-315) with custom molded ear inserts (see your audiologist). Not nearly as quiet as shooting range earplugs + muffs would be, but more socially acceptable and very good audio quality.
scotty79 13y ago
Aren't those bit uneffective in the speech frequency range? While wearing such thing angle grinder sounds bearable but I can still hear people talking.
- shubb 13y ago
  Err... electronic active noise canceling headphones don't work on speech, only against simple droning noises. I'm talking about headphones that use thick pads of material and a strong seal around your ears to straight block sound. You can just about hear people through them, whisper quiet. But if you are also wearing some in ears, then music, or white noise at a comfortable volume will eliminate it completely. You want headphones that do like -30db noise attenuation.
  - scotty79 13y ago
    I'm talking about simple passive air defenders that look like large headphones, have seal around the ear and padding. I think those are optimised for noises outside of speech range. After all you want to still be able to hear people while operating heavy machinery.
    - shubb 13y ago
      Fascinating. I know the ones I wear work, but they were 'borrowed' from a server room, so might be somehow different... This blog talks about the 'filtering' you describe, completely new to me... http://eardefenders.org/2011/07/filtered-v-s-non-filtered/ http://eardefenders.org/2011/07/filtered-v-s-non-filtered/

by shubb 13y ago

amag 13y ago

Unfortunately for me it's not that simple since I'm also very distracted by visual noise. Someone who passes by in my peripheral view can bring me out of flow as will the feeling of having someone behind my back do. I recently was fortunate enough to have my own office for a while and I haven't been as productive since...well, since last time I had my own office some five years back. It's an awesome feeling to enter flow almost as you enter your room... It's interesting to think back at my 15+ years long career and realize that the times when I've been most productive coincides with the times I've had my own office.

shubb 13y ago
Sounds like you need to find a way of working remote (at that company or somewhere else). I figure if much of your life is spent at work, life is too short to work somewhere you can't achieve your best.
pmjordan 13y ago
I'm the same. Can you put some pot plants to the left and right behind your screen? (more socially acceptable than other barriers) Request a second or larger monitor for your work? You can argue that it'll improve your productivity; you don't have to tell them that's because it'll block out your FOV, not because you actually want to display stuff on it… Another thing that would help is moving to a different desk, but I'm guessing that might be a bit more difficult to negotiate. (These days I'm self employed and work from home but that's what I did when I worked in an open-plan office. Also, if you can, come in to work before everyone else, while it's still very quiet. Usually more acceptable than coming in later than everyone else and staying later.)
- randallsquared 13y ago
  Perhaps "potted" plants. :)
  - pmjordan 13y ago
    Hah, yes, sorry - I'm not encouraging cannabis growing in the office. Pretty sure that's a standard name for a houseplant in UK English, didn't make the connection with the US term at all when I was typing it.
- amag 13y ago
  Thanks for the tips. The sad thing is that even if you look at it economically it doesn't make sense. Say that in order for each employee to have their own office you need 10m2 extra space per employee. Where I live, that would amount to ~2.5% of the employees salary, i.e. if a private office makes your emplyees more than 2.5% more productive you're profiting from private offices. In my experience my productivity boost when working in a private office amounts to maybe as much as 25% or more.
  - pmjordan 13y ago
    Oh, definitely. But then there are plenty of other ways of increasing programmer productivity which don't look like busywork so non-programmer managers won't have them. I guess try to get out of employment situations like that...

yajoe 13y ago

Even though I don't own a gun, I own two sets of ear protection for this very reason! Just as effective as Bose but for $30, could be worn throughout flights (before recent FAA changes), and needed no batteries. Highly recommend this option as well. Edit - best-seller on amazon: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00009LI4K http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00009LI4K

utefan001 13y ago

I recently bought Audio-Technica ATH-M50 studio headphones. Highly recommend! Even with the music turned way down, I barely hear other people talking. If I don't need to be in hyper concentration mode, I use regular head phones. Amazon link to the Audio-Technica studio headphones--> http://www.amazon.com/Audio-Technica-ATH-M50-Professional-Monitor-Headphones/dp/B000ULAP4U/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1385058335&sr=1-1&keywords=audio+technica http://www.amazon.com/Audio-Technica-ATH-M50-Professional-Mo...

shubb 13y ago
Oh yeah, if you look for 'recording headphones' you can find regular headphones rated not to leak sound. Apparently it's pretty important during recording sessions. I liked the look of these: http://www.extremeheadphones.com/ http://www.extremeheadphones.com/
krakensden 13y ago
Don't forget the blue-collar alternative: http://www.amazon.com/3M-WorkTunes-Digital-Protector-Compatible/dp/B003D7LX3U/ref=sr_1_23?s=hi&ie=UTF8&qid=1385101462&sr=1-23&keywords=peltor+earmuff http://www.amazon.com/3M-WorkTunes-Digital-Protector-Compati...

mjolk 13y ago

>This is a bit bad, but I just wear PPE Ear Defenders all day, on top of in ear headphones. With both of these, I can't hear a thing. Good lord, this is not an elegant solution.

masklinn 13y ago
It also really does not work for people with ear problems (I am one, I can't wear headphones or earplugs for more than 10mn at a time anymore, it starts hurting like the blazes and I have to remove them for a few hours)
- mjolk 13y ago
  >It also really does not work for people with ear problems Have you ever worn over-the-ear headphones for 10 hours? It's uncomfortable. And that's not even the worst part. Drowning out coworker nonsense with loud music is permanently damaging to your hearing. Focusing on writing some crappy Ruby isn't worth sacrificing a sense.
  - masklinn 13y ago
    > Have you ever worn over-the-ear headphones for 10 hours? It's uncomfortable. I can barely wear 'phones for 10 minutes. Because it physically hurts. I have worn 'phones for hours on end a decade or so ago (my weapons of choice were K271s before my ear issues flared up and made that a non-option). They could get pretty hot around the ears, but they were very comfortable. > Drowning out coworker nonsense with loud music is permanently damaging to your hearing. There are cans and buds with good isolation (or noise-cancelling).
  - bashinator 13y ago
    I would bet that the highly-blocking in-canal earbuds are actually less damaging than cheap ones that sit on top of your ear. Reason being that without any external noise, you can turn the level down on the music and get the same perceptual loudness. I know for a fact that when I got some nice etymotic earbuds (-20dB of outside sound), I was able to turn the level down from my average of about 70%, to more like 40-50% on my ipod.

chiph 13y ago

I use Shure earphones (SE-315) with custom molded ear inserts (see your audiologist). Not nearly as quiet as shooting range earplugs + muffs would be, but more socially acceptable and very good audio quality.

scotty79 13y ago

Aren't those bit uneffective in the speech frequency range? While wearing such thing angle grinder sounds bearable but I can still hear people talking.

shubb 13y ago
Err... electronic active noise canceling headphones don't work on speech, only against simple droning noises. I'm talking about headphones that use thick pads of material and a strong seal around your ears to straight block sound. You can just about hear people through them, whisper quiet. But if you are also wearing some in ears, then music, or white noise at a comfortable volume will eliminate it completely. You want headphones that do like -30db noise attenuation.
- scotty79 13y ago
  I'm talking about simple passive air defenders that look like large headphones, have seal around the ear and padding. I think those are optimised for noises outside of speech range. After all you want to still be able to hear people while operating heavy machinery.
  - shubb 13y ago
    Fascinating. I know the ones I wear work, but they were 'borrowed' from a server room, so might be somehow different... This blog talks about the 'filtering' you describe, completely new to me... http://eardefenders.org/2011/07/filtered-v-s-non-filtered/ http://eardefenders.org/2011/07/filtered-v-s-non-filtered/