s it OK to wear headphones in the office? Do they help get work done, or is wearing them considered rude and damaging to the office vibe. While it might be easy to dismiss our headphone-wearing colleagues as unfriendly, the increase in usage is symptomatic of another issue entirely.
As staff have returned to the office post-lockdown, they have been confronted with the thing employees dislike most about open plan offices according to research: noise.
It is hard to focus when colleagues are having impromptu meetings next to your desk, or discussing their weekends as you struggle to hit a looming deadline.
Noise and distraction
Open-plan office noise has significant implications for both employee wellbeing and performance.
One research found relatively moderate levels of open-plan office noise caused a 25 per cent increase in negative mood and a 34 per cent increase in physiological stress, which reduces performance.
Like closing the office door
Wearing headphones all day is likely to signal the office environment is too noisy or distracting. It can also indicate the dynamics of the team’s interaction is ineffective.
Since most employees no longer have the luxury of closing their office door, headphones have emerged as an alternative.
What about workplace collaboration?
In many open-plan offices, the drive for increased interaction and collaboration comes at the expense of the ability to focus and concentrate.
When distraction makes it hard for employees to focus, cognitive and emotional resources are depleted. The result is increasing stress and errors, undermining performance.
What can organisations do?
However, this has to be balanced with the need for focused work.Organisations can deal with this in several ways. They can provide effective acoustic treatments in the workplace and by ensure the design and layout of the office provides sufficient spaces for employees to retreat from noise.