A professional paper with contributions by the American Society of Interior Designers (ASID) carefully lays out information about the continually growing trend in “open workplaces.” The ultimate point of the work is to realize for the reader that the amount of noise in many of these workplaces is really costing their organizations.
The details really must be quite shocking for business leaders following the notion that the more open a workplace is the better for their culture.
According to the paper, an estimated 70% of office employees work in cubicles of other “open work areas.” The authors work to illustrate the growing cause of noise in the workplace in a variety of ways.
- The paper notes that workstations are shrinking. The average workstation area back in the 70s was 12′ x 12′ and now the average is 6′ x 8′ or 6′ x 6′.
- Heating, ventilation, and air conditioning equipment is considerably much more quiet than it has been in the past and no longer covers office conversations.
- In addition to land lines, the additional uses of their speaker phone features and the use of cell phones increase the noise around the office
Dr. David Sykes writes in “How Acoustics Affect Human Productivity” that increased speech privacy drastically improves office performance and productivity.
As “conversational distractions” decreased, focus was measured at a 48% increase, errors made in tasks requiring short-term memory decreased 10%, and stress (measured in terms of physical symptoms) decreased by 27%.
Suggestions by the ASID paper make reference to the use of carpet, fabrics, and glass & panels blocking sources of conversation, etc. However the most fascinating reference points out the use of a “sound masking system” which generates a low-level white noise in the workplace to better mask conversational distractions and so on.
As a result, as a business leader you may be interested in taking a longer look at your work environment. Is it really that noisy? Is it a distraction? Ask your employees!