Chatter, laughter, the printer, and mid-morning coffee being made; these are just some of the noises you’ll likely be very familiar with if you work in an office. But what are the effects of these noises on the employees who hear them, and are they just part and parcel of corporate life, or can they be reduced to make for a more peaceful working environment?
In this article, we’ll explore what we mean by office noise, how it affects office workers, what the laws are around noise within workplaces, and what can be done to reduce the noise that office employees are exposed to.
The noise that we may class as a disturbance in the office differs from the workplace noise issues of factories and construction sites; there shouldn’t be any heavy machinery or power tools here. Noise within offices can be far more subtle, but the build up can have more of a negative effect than you may realise. Those noises can include:
Of course, these are just sources of noise from inside the office. Other factors could include traffic noise entering through open windows, and construction work happening either outside, or in other offices within the same building.
Office noise should be a concern to employers on two counts, as it can affect the wellbeing of their employees, and their productivity. It’s not rocket science that office noise not only impacts focus and causes a distraction, but also triggers unwelcome physical responses too.
The headline is that noise can be the catalyst for a stress response within our body. This stress response affects our wellbeing by spiking our heart rate and blood pressure, which can cause all sorts of problems if exposure is frequent. This includes poor sleep, and long term issues such as cardiovascular problems, hypertension, and high levels of stress hormones.
In 2019, business solutions company The Remark Group conducted a ‘Noise and Wellbeing at Work’ survey with the help of an environmental psychologist and workplace strategist. They found that, of 1,000 office workers surveyed, 44% reported that ‘noise had a negative impact on their overall wellbeing’. Over 40% said that noise at work ‘caused them to feel stressed’.
If nothing else, noise we can’t control can irritate us, leading us to feel a slew of negative emotions, including helplessness and anger; hardly ingredients for a calm and enjoyable day.
Of course, anything that affects employee wellbeing can usually be linked to productivity; a double blow for both workers, and their employers. It makes sense that noise can affect our ability to get absorbed in a task and give it our full attention - but just how bad can it be?
The same Noise and Wellbeing at Work survey that we previously mentioned found that a whopping 65% of those surveyed reported that ‘noise in the workplace impacted on their ability to complete work in an accurate and timely manner’.
Further evidence of this lost productivity in the face of office noise can be found through the British Journal of Psychology’s study, conducted in 2011, which investigated ‘whether office noise (with or without speech) is disruptive to two office-related tasks: memory for prose and mental arithmetic.’
They found that ‘office noise without speech disrupts performance on the mental arithmetic task only’. They also found that ‘both speech and office noise can disrupt performance on memory for prose and mental arithmetic tasks, and the effect is independent of the meaning of the irrelevant speech.’
By and large, it’s not a case of inconsiderate colleagues; office noise is simply the byproduct of many people working within the same space. What can be directly attributed to the severity of office noise is the popularity of the open plan office - without those barriers of the walls and cubicles of old, sound can really travel, causing small noises to build up into something of a cacophony.
Whilst open plan offices are fantastic for maximising natural light, encouraging collaboration between colleagues, and enabling us to enjoy the benefits of a social working experience, they do have the drawback of increasing noise pollution. That is, unless clever soundproofing measures are taken; more on those later.
We can’t ignore the huge effect that COVID-19 had on our working practices, and the ways in which it changed what we could and could not tolerate whilst carrying out our work. With many office workers having to work from home for weeks on end having previously been used to 5 days in the office every week, returning to the hustle and bustle of an office environment was something of a shock to the system.
On one hand, the COVID-19 pandemic has meant that our tolerance to noise can feel like it’s been lowered - when you’re used to the peace and quiet of your own home, sharing your working space with others can jangle your senses and cause you to lose focus. However, it has also meant that hybrid working has become commonplace, whereby part of the week is spent in the office, and the rest at home, so in many instances, there aren’t as many people using the office at the same time in many cases, which can bring the noise levels down.
Broadly, noise is measured in decibels (dB); the louder the noise, the higher the number of decibels. The number of decibels that mark the threshold of pain (the point at which a noise is so loud it becomes physically painful) is 130dB. A pneumatic drill, for example, can be around 120dB, which is why you see those using them wearing ear defenders.
When it comes to the kind of noise within offices, we’re thankfully not usually looking at pneumatic drill levels of sound. However, conversations and general office noise can register between 50-60dB, which are hardly negligible noise levels.
The UK’s workplace noise legislation is mostly applicable to typically noisy environments and industries, such as construction, demolition, manufacturing, and waste disposal. However, every employer has a responsibility under The Control of Noise at Work Regulations 2005 to ‘to prevent or reduce risks to health and safety from exposure to noise at work.’ This includes:
This includes the levels of noise exposure averaged over a working day and/or week, and the maximum noise exposure, or peak sound pressure, that an employee is exposed to in a working day. Daily or weekly exposure must not exceed 87 dB(A) or a peak sound pressure of 140 dB(C).
This could include installing soundproofing, and/or providing their employees with ear defenders.
Where there is a risk to health, such as that posed by very loud workplace noise, health surveillance should be regularly carried out.
It’s very important to note that regulations do not apply to low level noise that, whilst irritating, is not a risk to employees’ hearing. In our opinion, though, a responsible employer will acknowledge that whilst office noise isn’t an official health and safety concern, studies have shown that it’s detrimental to the wellbeing of employees, and they should therefore seek to reduce it if possible.
With office noise being both a wellbeing and productivity issue, employers should no doubt want to create a quieter, calmer environment in which their employees can focus as well as collaborate when required.
An office that hasn’t been configured to keep noisier areas away from where the deep work happens is one that will see an increase in distracted employees irritated by nearby noise. Kitchens, breakout spaces and meeting rooms should generally be enclosed if possible, and situated far away from the main office area, so that noise from those using them doesn’t travel to those trying to get their heads down.
Sound can easily travel from room to room if the insulation isn’t up to scratch. Walls, ceilings, and floors should include some sort of acoustic material if keeping things quiet is your aim, such as mineral wool, fibreglass, and acoustic foam.
Sectioning off an otherwise open plan office can be a great way to keep that feeling of flow within the space, whilst keeping noise to a minimum. These don’t have to bring darkness to a space either; glass acoustic panelling can provide high acoustic performance, so you can get the best of both worlds. These are ideal for meeting rooms and individual offices.
Acoustic panels can also be secured to the walls, as simple sound absorption devices.
Staying with sound absorption, acoustic ceilings can be instrumental in controlling noise levels, and preventing noise from spilling over into other areas of the office. These are a form of suspended ceiling, and work to absorb the sounds within an office. Ceiling baffles, linear ceilings and polynodal ceilings are striking as well as effective in noise control, so you don’t even have to compromise on the look of the room to achieve a quiet environment.
Just like they do in our homes, soft furnishings can help deaden noise. This includes carpets, rugs, sofas, curtains and blinds, and even acoustic artwork and wall hangings.
In some instances, sound masking might be a favourable option. This involves using white or ambient noise, played through speakers, to block out other sounds, creating a blank canvas of sound against which work can be done.
When designing and building a commercial office space, soundproofing should be considered at an early stage. This ensures that materials in the very fabric of the building as well as the fixtures and fittings can be chosen based on their acoustic qualities, as well as a design agreed upon that reduces the carriage of noise to areas that need peace and quiet.
Ensure there’s a separation between noisy areas such as breakout areas and kitchens and the places in which deep work should be happening. You should also separate an area for noisy equipment, such as printers, photocopiers and shredders.
To help reduce noise transference around your office, screens and barriers can help; these should be positioned as close to the source of noise as possible.
For ultimate noise control, acoustic ceilings are hard to beat; by having a surface above every area of the office that absorbs sound, stopping lots of chatter in its tracks.
Forming meeting spaces and individual offices from soundproof panelling stops conversation from inside seeping out, and prevents the general office noise from distracting those inside.
All of this sounds like we’re aiming for silent offices, but we don’t believe we are; whilst quiet and calm working spaces are ideal, we’d admit that a completely silent office would be a little disconcerting, and discourage the collaboration between colleagues and departments that can often spark lightbulb moments. However, by controlling extraneous noise, office spaces can become environments in which the best of both worlds can be achieved.
Making a meaningful difference for those looking to create a commercial space in which focus is easy to achieve, SAS specialise in acoustic office ceilings that control noise within office spaces. We’re fortunate enough to have worked in many commercial spaces for clients across a range of industries, and these years of experience mean that we can guide you through the best options for your office.
Our clients benefit from us being design-led as well as passionate about high acoustic performance, so you can be reassured of a finished ceiling that will not only create a calm and quiet environment, but also look beautiful too.