Everyone desires a stress free workplace. To acquire this, you need to remove the ambient noise which creates the stress most of the time. Added to this is the matter of losing concentration. The problem becomes even bigger when you have an open office. Those who have no idea about ambient noise will find this article useful.
Ambient Noise
Ambient noise refers to that background which is always there. The tone and the volume of the sound might differ. Often this sound turns up to create destructive environment. To determine the level of ambient noise, sometimes sound meters get used. Some areas experience high ambient noise which eventually causes noise pollution.
A beautifully designed office is required to make an impression. It is also required to make people who are working for the organization feel better. Now, the latest trend is having open offices. These are polished and well decorated. However, to have an office like this where cubicles don’t exist, you need to think of reducing the background noise as well.
Open offices come with numerous benefits. It gives open view of the nature which is refreshing. It also increases the productivity of the employees. The offices with open floor plans and glass decoration offer both natural light and view of outside. Both of these comes together to help people work better. Open office plan comes with another benefit; it is less expensive.
However, there is one major drawback of the open office as well. It is noise pollution. Noise is that one thing makes open a risk to create. A study has shown that every day people lose more than an hour due to noise. Losing focus is a common factor when it comes to background noise.
Ambient Noise Sites for Your Workplace Modification
There are ways to remove noise from the workplace. Removing sound entirely might not be possible. However, one can remove a lot of noise with proper planning and strategizing.
Dedicated Quiet Place
This is an easy to ensure that noise will not intrude your workplace. Just identify an area which you call quiet place. It can be a conference room. It can be a corner of the office set up away from the other employees. It can be a small room separated from the actual work station.
You can call this the quiet zone. Here the employees can go to focus on important work. Such an area will be ambient noise free as people will stay away from their usual chatter in this area.
Create Areas for Noise
This is like balancing the silence. Employees need to make noise. There are meetings which demand shouting on the top of the lungs, disagreements and even fighting. Such events cannot take place inside the workplace where others are trying hard to focus on the work at hands.
However, such events are important as well. If you deprive your employees from making noise they will surely get bored. To avoid making this mistake, you can provide an area where they can make all the noises they want. They can have birthday parties here. They can have their noisy disagreement here. They can also have their meetings here. Such an area will drive the noise away from the actual workplace.
In addition, you can create a special place for making phone calls as well. It becomes irksome when employees make calls during the working hours. Having a separate call making area will take the chatter away from the others. This will keep the workplace reasonably quiet.
Mask the Sound
This is a new concept. It says that to reduce noise, you can create more noise. However, this does not mean you will create sound of hammer beating against the wall or have people fight with each other. It means you will have a strategy which will help you cover the ambient noise which is distracting people from their work.
Low level sound which is known as white sound can actually create a sense of calm and guard the other noises that are making people to lose focus. Sound of air conditioner can be an example of white noise this can guard the other sound of the room.
Plant Plants
This is the nature’s way of absorbing sound. Study has shown that placing plants reduces the sound from the room. Having greenery around will help people work better as well. You can decorate your office with plants and create a great looking open office which is both attractive and environment friendly.
However, you need to make sure that insects don’t invade your office from the plants. This you need to take care of.
Sound Absorbing Materials
If planting plants is not an option, you can invest on sound absorbing materials. There are glasses and pieces of furnishings which are designed to absorb sound. You can use them to keep your office quiet and noise free. A thick carpet can do wonder in reducing the noise in no time. This will cushion the sound of footsteps and make office noise free.
In case you are fortunate enough to have ample money to spend, you can invest on ceiling, wall decors and other materials which keep sound away from the office. However, those on a tight budget will have to have a strategy to reduce noise from their workplace. They can take some personal measures to reduce noise from their own surrounding.
The best thing you can do to reduce noise around you is to say it out loud. You need to tell the people who are making noise that they are interrupting in your work. You need to say that you have been finding it difficult to work due to the noise.
In case this is not an option, you can take another step to reduce noise. You can stick headphone to your ears. This removes all the noise automatically.
However, you need to make sure that the music you listen does not distract you from your work. Instrumental trance music helps in focusing on the work at hand. The creative people find this an effective idea.
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