What kinds of noise do people experience in open plan offices? People in my office may have quiet conversations, but no one is taking phone calls at their desk. If someone did (maybe they are new), I'd tell them to go elsewhere.
Is this a cultural problem rather than a physical one? Or do people need absolute silence to work effectively?
I worked in a open office with a sales team whose job it was to make phone calls from their desk all day.
But even for engineers, it was common for them to join meetings with people from other offices from their desk. There was no other place for anyone to go - there weren’t nearly enough conference rooms to support all the people making calls simultaneously.
Same, and it was terrible. And I promise you it's not just a techie copping a "hurr hurr salepeople are awful amirite" attitude: most of the salespeople at this company were great folks and I enjoyed their company...in my free time, i.e. when I wasn't trying to concentrate on coding with them all talking at once.
Some open plan offices have good acoustics, others are quite literally open warehouses where the noise adds up, even if everyone whispers. And there's always that guy who's always shouting and doesn't respond when you ask them to tone down.
For me (and I suspect, for many), all the movement tends to be way more distracting than the noise - you're constantly seeing things from the corner of your eye. On top of that, the feeling of someone peering over your shoulder makes it hard to focus (even when there's nobody actually doing it)
Consider that in open offices there is often no other place for people to go to take phone calls. There is always a shortage of conference rooms and phone booths because everybody wants/needs them
Is this a cultural problem rather than a physical one? Or do people need absolute silence to work effectively?