Too loud!

jdavidb on 2002-06-20T17:50:51

Last week my side of the building was practically empty. Now there's five more people. That means a lot of noise (especially since my job is mostly my in front of a screen, while some other jobs are mostly on the telephone).

This morning I couldn't concentrate at all. I've been in this kind of environment before, but not in a long time. I tried turning on the radio, but it wasn't enough. Fortunately, a coworker here has a pair of green headphone-like earmuffs he loaned me. Blissful silence. I got more done than I have in a long time. My friend doesn't remember where he got these, but as always, the Internet comes to the rescue. If, like me, you are distracted by office noise, look here. Elvex also sells earplugs, but I figured you could find those in the drugstore.

Anybody else bothered by office noise? Having those earmuffs on was better than the door I've always wanted for my cube.

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headphones

gav on 2002-06-20T18:09:38

I'm the opposite, I switched from the main office into the 'back' office which is a lot quieter (but with a window view). I share the room with 2 others but it's still really quiet. It feels a bit too quiet sometimes. I tend to make up for it by listening to my cds.

Just a thought, wouldn't it make more sense to wear headphones that provided music :)

Re:headphones

jdavidb on 2002-06-20T19:17:17

Yes, but I've done that until I'm tired of it. Also, I'm a little worried that constant music right in my ears could damage my hearing over the long term. So I do headphones from time to time, but I was looking for an additional alternative.

I recently ripped my entire CD collection to MP3's so I could put them on shuffle here. Like I said, though, it gets tiring sometimes. I want to listen to music because I felt like having some music, not because I'm trying to flee the noise.

Noise-cancellation headphones

ziggy on 2002-06-20T19:32:05

Sounds like what you want is a pair of noise-cancellation headphones. They tend to run about $100, and you can use them to get something approximating near absolute quiet, or use them as a pair of headphones to hear only music (and none of the background noise).

I think Bose makes a pair. Should be able to find them in any decent stereo store (or high-end yuppie shop; they also work well on airplanes).

Be careful that you don't make your work area too quiet. I was born with tinnitus, so I hear a constant ringing in the ears if the room is too quiet. I find that I need some form of light background noise to distract from the ringing. But too much noise is even more of a distraction. (I haven't heard ringing all day; now that I mentioned it, I'll probably hear it for the rest of the afternoon...oh well.)