Dealing With Noise in Workplace

The current trend of open plan offices has altered the way we work.  for one, it has made the environment much noisier, with constantly ringing phones, noise from water cooler gossip sessions and from a variety of office machinery, such as printers and copiers.

A noisy workplace tends to increase stress levels and reduce productivity.  There are no solutions that will completely eliminate noise but there are ways to control it.  Here is how:

You cannot make the noise go away.  The best way to deal with his situation is to acknowledge the unwanted sounds and understand that you must coexist.  Acceptance can make you adjust easily. 

There will be times when you will be irritated by the increasing noise levels.  Take a break and walk away from the environment.

Talk to your line manager about the increasing noise and how it is affecting your productivity.  Doing the same with your colleagues may help.

Discourage irrelevant talk by not becoming a part of unnecessary conversations in the open office areas.

Help create a culture of acoustic courtesy by posting signs like Quiet Please, Work in Progress.

Do not hesitate to politely ask colleagues for an action that may help reduce the noise to some extent, like not to using the speaker phone or to taking their extended conversations to an office or conference room.

If all else fails, use earplugs or muffs; they can block out background noise to large extent.