Sound masking in an office

[sean]

Sound masking is being installed in the open-plan office I work in. Has anyone experienced it? Does it really cut down on audible distractions as is claimed?

[andy tims]

Too many variables to say, but it will probably help a bit if an acoustician has been involved in the design / specification.

It won't do much (if anything) to reduce sound coming straight at you from people talking in close proximity.

[David_D]

Sadly open plan is open plan. There's always one person at the far end of the office with a voice like a foghorn who holds interminable phone calls and then people standing next to your desk holding a conversation oblivious to the fact you are there and trying to work! It's all about cramming more people into a smaller space.

I'll be very interested to hear if it's a positive outcome for you.

[dulux]

Yeah, the guy with the voice like a foghorn lives n breathes in our open plan office. Made so much worse as every third word and sentence is punctuated with the word 'mate'. "Great mate, cheers mate, thanks mate..." You get the picture!

[sean]

I'll be very interested to hear if it's a positive outcome for you.

I'll have to wait and see. It'll be a while before it's installed and functioning, then they're going to gradually increase the 'volume' (?) to allow people to get used to it.

Just so long as it doesn't make things worse!

[benwisback]

It’s supposed to be good nowadays with the technology coming on much in the same way as noise cancelling headphones (get some of those anyway if you can have them in your open plan office!) but obviously an open space is always going to be a harder thing to control than the distance between a head and some headphones.

https://cambridgesound.com/learn/sound-masking-101/

I find “agile working” helps also, ie allowing yourself and your staff the opportunity to chip off somewhere quiet and get work done wherever that may be.