Open Office Plans May Be Hurting Productivity

Ever wanted to punch the guy working next to you who sounds like he’s basically yelling into his phone when he’s on conference calls? What about the woman who taps her foot incessantly from the second you arrive to the second you leave, or that intern who crackles his chip bag every day at lunch?

It turns out that you’re not the only one who’s annoyed with your too-loud co-workers.

Researchers Jungsoo Kim and Richard de Dear at the University of Sydney discovered that noise privacy is the number one complaint among cubicle workers and open-plan employees, with 60% and 50% respectively describing it as a major issue. Read more...