People wearing ear plugs in the workplace

[PatriarchyPersonified]

I probably am being unreasonable but...

Random one this one. I work in an open plan office that probably contains about 30 people on a busy day, in an area the size of two tennis courts. (Roughly).

The only noise is normal day to day activity, low level conversations and the occasional phone call. No machinery or radios etc.

A person who has recently started working here has taken to wearing ear plugs in the office. (Think noise reducing in ear defender type things that are used by people who shoot) when asked why they said it "helps them concentrate".

Now I suppose that's fair enough but this has prompted a couple of other people to start doing the same thing, including wearing old fashioned ear defender type headsets (think 1960s headphones) that block out all external noise.

Now we have three or four (depending on the day) people who are completely cut off from everything but their screens, to the point where you have to wave a hand in front of their face if you want to offer them a tea.

It feels a bit, well, rude.

I feel sorry for the people who have to sit next to them, because they are effectively isolated from any human contact for the entire day.

I can't see it being a management issue, as I don't think they are doing anything wrong technically. But it is making some people feel uncomfortable in work.

Is this normal practice?

A lot of people used to wear headphones in my last workplace.

I found it extremely isolating, it felt awkward talking to people. Often they would slowly remove their headphones, like you were interrupting.

Thank goodness I work in a more normal work environment now where colleagues can communicate without having to wave a hand in front of someone’s face.

I work from home most of the time and just visit the office a few times a month. If I had to be there permanently I would need headphones as I find it impossible to concentrate with all of the background noise.

I am also acutely aware that I'm probably also part of the problem. On an average day about 50% of the people in the office are remote workers that are 'visiting' and trying to catch up with colleagues. The permanent staff must find it a nightmare when half of the office is so transient. Nobody is deliberately noisy but it can become distracting when a lot of people are in.

Like many who hate noise I have no disorder, no condition, nthing wrong with me at all. I just like silence adn to concentrate in total silence in order to work. Loads of us do work which requires that. I amend contracts etc . Getting a comma in the wrong place even could cost thousands of pounds. I want to be able to hear a pin drop at work and luckily all employers and now myself recognise that and it is a small price to pay to let me work in silence on my own.

I ise them when I'm in clients' offices. They're paying for me to churn out best work. Very often it helps to have slience or music, so that's what I do.

If someone really needs me they stand in front and I remove headphones. It's not difficult.

So this colleague OP doesn't wear bluetooth headphones but wears industrial ear defenders (like you would see on a building site)? That is weird but not beyond the realms of possibility, especially in open plan offices. The move from smaller offices or rooms to completely open plan can mean that the smallest of noises gets magnified throughout the space and can be very distracting to some people.

I use my earbuds from my phone to listen to the radio so that I don't overhear conversations that colleagues have on tasks that they are doing but that have nothing to do with me. Their conversations (think deep man voice and much higher pitched woman voice) can be very distracting.

50 in our office, we are allowed to wear headphones with music in one ear. It has cut the noise levels well, more work is being produced and fewer mistakes.

To the person who said they swapped all clicky pens with biros, fantastic. We had a guy who bounced little rubber balls to concentrate. I hid them, sssssh!

I always wear them (and sometimes if I don’t want to talk I pretend I am on a conference call) . I am there to work and Work I do ! People always interrupt me if they need to

I also have a colleague who tends to talk (abiut herself) all day too

I wear earplugs in my office. I can still just about hear people talking but it effectively drowns out all of the coughing/heavy breathing/eating/coffee slurping (colleague who sits directly next to me is guilty of all these). I literally wouldnt be able to get through the day without my earplugs. If anyone wants to talk to me about work matters I just remove it straight away, no need for hands to be waved in my face.

I wear them or I would never get anything done. They are Bluetoothed to my phone, so it rings in my ear if I get a call (we don’t have desk phones as we are all technically agile workers, only mobiles). It’s also got a microphone so I use them to make calls on. Absolute godsend.

I stole my colleagues stress ball. I couldn't bear the click click click click click as he threw it every time he was slack....I WASN'T ALWAYS SLACK. It really stressed him out looking for it,but I didn't give in. I couldn't deal with it.

I still want to ask him why he has to throw and catch a marker throughout every conversation,and tell him JUST SIT STILL. But the market is quiet.

I wear earbuds when I need to concentrate. I’ve got a stressful job that depends on attention to detail. I’d rather do a good job, than miss all my deadlines due to being distracted by wittering.

I don’t have them in all the time, I love a chat and I am very approachable (bloody 360 degree survey said so).

People who complain about headphones feel isolated if the person opposite isn’t joining in on chat about the latest YouTube cat video.

Guilty of being the annoying clicky pen person - my boss actually told me she knew exactly what I was really feeling rather than saying in a meeting with a 3rd party by the intensity of click.
She told me I wasn't allowed to present holding one when I was new to presenting and using something to control myself!!!

When I'm wearing my earphones, OP, that means I want you to SHOUT at me when you're offering me your horrible tea.

I wear basic headphones with no noise just so people don’t chat to me too much, I get more done and I find it dull chit chatting, sorry OP. We do have a central table for breaks where one can be social though.

My DH wears them so he can concentrate on intricate reports with no margin for error.

I couldn't wear them where I work due to also needing to really concentrate due to a duty to answer the phones if admin are busy.

I the new person's use prompted people who have been there some time to do the same, I would think those people have been putting up with what they see as annoying colleagues who won't stfu for some time.

I would not like to wear ear defenders all day in the office. They would annoy me, physically, and I don't get that bothered by general office noise. Plus, I like a bit of distraction in between bouts of getting my head down and getting things done. But I don't think I have any kind of right to that distraction from my colleagues. It must be really irritating to work in an office where it's expected that you will chit chat and pass comment if that type of interaction throws you off your game.

I can see why your colleagues who don't like the ear defenders will be disappointed at a change that they don't enjoy, but it really ought to be giving them pause for thought about how welcome their behaviour was before.

Someone they're sitting next to probably chews or sniffs really loudly

Some people are hypersensitive to noise or hyper vigilant to sounds not everyone can tune out 30 peoples voices.
For me having Hyperacusis, Hypervigilence(jump at the slightest noise or movement) and very loud Tinnitus makes my brain exhausted with all the extra stimuli.

Background noise can be a big problem for people who have hearing loss as well.

It’s very common in mine and every office I’ve been in over the last 5 years- less so before that. Most people seem to have big ones rather than in ear. I’m paid to concentrate and I need to block out the noise in the open-plan office. The culture in my team is that you can still speak to people when they’re plugged in- it’s not necessarily a sign you can’t be disturbed. You just have to get used to it. I wouldn’t work well without mine. It would be different if I had a job answering phones or in customer-facing roles.

Thanks for listening Lettuce, your colleague sounds like an arse. Hope things improve for you.

I'll happily chat at work for a few minutes here and there but there are some people that literally blab allllll day long. I put my earphones in at periods throughout the day. If I wore them all the time I could see myself feeling a bit deflated and withdrawn but that's not the case. I put them in when I need to crack on and concentrate without distraction

And yes - people sneak up behind me/wave at me/email me when they want me but tbh when you wear them frequently you get a very good instinct for knowing if someone needs you by their body language.

I listen to music part of the day if the sniffer next to me is in - or is reading her work back to herself in a quiet yet still audible and irritating whisper! I find those noises irritating but am less bothered by the loud guy a few desks away who comes and stands on the edge of my desk to talk to his secretary who is the other side of the divide - very many times a day!

There are people who 'work' in my office who are only still breathing because of my earphones.
One day I'll make a chart and document time spent yabbering about themselves/their possessions/their kids - in technicolour detail/slebs/bitching about other colleagues v time spent doing what they're actually paid to do. On public sector money.

I wish I didn't have to occasionally answer the telephone, I would love to drown out my colleagues. They drive me utterly bonkers with their mindless drivel all bloody day (morning, I don't work afternoons). Then wonder why they always have 'soooo much work'.

I just want to do my job and it is very hard when people call my name so I lose my place, look up thinking it's a technical query, but it isn't. It's a query of which colour of candy cane stripe looks better for the Santas Grotto they are creating for Christmas.

Admittedly I would not have wanted to do this before I went on maternity, all my colleagues were lovely (and extremely hardworking). Since I've come back the workload has increased slightly but the staffing level has increased dramatically. I can only assume it's because manager has hired people she likes and they want to talk all day and not actually do any work.