The Not so Silent Office Productivity Killer
2 April 2024 • Article Summary
Topic: Ambient Noise
The Fast Company
Noise can be a significant productivity killer in office environments. A survey reveals that distractions from noise, especially conversations, can impact productivity, with men being affected more than women. The key factor in distractions is intelligibility, where understanding speech can disrupt focus. Environments with intelligible speech, like an airport lounge with a News broadcast on TV, can be more distracting than a noisy coffee shop where sounds are jumbled together.
The solution is not complete silence but creating a consistent background "hum" of noise to enhance productivity. Listening to music with lyrics can be as distracting as noisy coworkers, and for tasks requiring high cognitive processing music without lyrics is the better choice. So is creating separate zones in offices for focused work and collaboration.