Noise at work affects concentration and performance
28 January 2009
Furniture is often thought of when considering ergonomics, but noise in the workplace is an equally important and often overlooked consideration along with other factors.
Factors such as temperature, lighting and even the effectiveness of the humble computer mouse can have a bearing on an individuals comfort and work performance.
Increasingly we live and work in environments where there is a constant level of noise ready and willing to distract us from our work and make us feel more tense and less focused.
Thankfully there are also now more products and options to reduce noise levels within the workplace or at least bring them down to a tolerable level. Before looking at the ways and means of reducing noise within the workplace it is important to establish the main cause and factors relating to noise and also what is the difference between sound and noise. Finally aside from the human factor how can noise reduction positively impact on a companies business and also affect its bottom line ?
What is noise? Firstly we need to look at the difference between noise and sound. Sound can be measured and categorized by using decibel readings whereas noise cannot be measured and is much more subjective or personal to the individual.
An example of this could be someone working at their laptop in a café area. They have their ipod on and are listening to music at say 70 decibels but still happily working, focussed on their work. The following day they are in the same place but with no ipod. There is a person on a mobile phone sitting a few metres away talking about their holidays at around 30 decibels, but the person on the pc cannot focus on their work and is being distracted by the conversation. This shows it is not always the level of sound that is the issue so much as the type of sound or noise that is being created.
Managing sound and noise once we have established that all sound is not a bad thing and that noise is more of a nuisance, we can start to assess the types of issues present in the modern working environment.
For one individual noise issues may stem from one of their colleagues who has a slightly louder voice and is prone to discuss football and his or her social diary when colleagues are trying to focus on work. Another person’s issues may be the constant noise from a hyperactive photocopier positioned near their workstation.
Once the nature of the issues are revealed you can start to assess the best way forward in reducing these noise issues and there are some simple ways of reducing noise such as more plants in the office, considering Bluetooth headset usage as opposed to normal phones and careful planning of workstation positions.
Whilst it is advantageous to reduce specific noise issues, trying to massively reduce general office noise levels can also have the opposite of the desired effect as recent research has suggested that general office noise can help stimulate the brain and help us focus on our work as we associate this background noise with our work environment.
Active ergonomics relies on all our senses and body being comfortable that is why a more holistic view of the workplace is necessary.
