Selling Acoustics to Hipsters
Last fall, collaboration technology developer Plantronics released a report that examined how noise affects productivity in the workplace. The study noted that workplaces are getting noisier, with more employees inhabiting fewer square feet of office space. Over half of the survey’s respondents said they were disturbed by noise multiple times daily; more than a third said that customers calling in complain about the noise they hear in the background during calls. Seventy-seven percent of those surveyed said that they would prefer to work in a “more traditional workspace with high walled cubicles or offices.” In other words, open-concept workspaces may look sexy, but people don’t like them that much.
