Nearly a quarter of UK office workers have taken time off due to noise-related stress, according to a survey of 2,000 workers by Oscar Acoustics. The findings highlight how open-plan workplaces can harm productivity and well-being.
The survey found that 24% of respondents have taken stress leave because of office noise, while 32% admitted to delivering lower-quality work or missing deadlines as a result. More than one in four (26%) said noise causes them to snap at colleagues monthly, and 45% said it has led them to consider leaving their job.
Workers share their experiences
Online discussions reflect these frustrations. On an r/AskUK thread, one user, Petrichor_ness, commented: 'One of the many reasons I’m self employed and WFH now is I can’t work in noise. If there are people talking near me, I can’t write. I’m not being a killjoy, it’s just the way my mind works.'
Software engineer HirsuteHacker said they find it 'infuriating trying to focus when the sales team are in,' writing: 'It’s ridiculous how loud they can be. Some roles require a lot of focus. It’s stupid to put those employees in the same rooms as the noisy lot.' Another user, Cococannnon, added: 'Ours is like a zoo half the time, you can’t book a room for love nor money so I stay home majority of it.'
However, some workers prefer the buzz of a busy workplace and argue that noise-sensitive staff should use headphones or go elsewhere. For 23% of respondents, this is not an option.
Expert insights on office design
Dr Amanda Jones, reader in organisational behaviour and the future of work at King’s Business School, explained that employers have shifted away from individual or enclosed design to 'encourage communication and collaboration by bringing people together,' alongside economic benefits.
Yet studies suggest that greater physical proximity may reduce face-to-face interaction, with employees using more electronic communication when in the office. Hybrid working since the pandemic has further 'challenged that established context.'
'Many organisations have reduced their office footprint while employees have become accustomed to having much greater control over their working environment at home,' Dr Jones told Metro. 'This means the office now has to accommodate a rather different workforce, often within reduced space, and organisations perhaps haven’t yet fully worked out what they want the post-pandemic office to be for.'
Dr Jones noted that 'research has consistently identified noise, distraction and lack of privacy as important disadvantages' of modern working. She added: 'Speech is particularly distracting because it is difficult for us simply to tune out meaningful conversations around us, and this can be especially challenging for some people, including some neurodivergent employees. That can make work requiring sustained concentration or working memory more difficult.'
She stressed that this is not necessarily down to 'a lack of resilience' among staff. 'I think the bigger question for employers therefore isn’t simply, “How do we make people tolerate noise?”, but “What are we asking people to come into the office to do?”' she explained. 'If the purpose is collaboration, organisations need environments where interaction is genuinely possible and legitimate. But people also need somewhere to concentrate when their work requires it.'
Solutions for noisy offices
Ben Hancock, managing director of Oscar Acoustics, explained why open-plan offices are hard to focus in. 'Say the word cat in a hard, echoey room, and it bounces around for up to three seconds before fading away. In that time, you’ve spoken about eight more words, and they’re all overlapping each other. Now multiply that noise by every person speaking in the office. That’s why you can hear everything and understand almost nothing.'
Features like hard floors, glass, and reflective surfaces turn normal conversation 'into a wall of noise.' Hancock also highlighted that layout can make quiet spaces feel noisy, such as placing focus areas next to kitchens or informal meeting points without 'distance and absorption' in between.
'Most employers reach for the wrong solution for excessive noise,' he continued. 'Desk dividers and a few plants look like they are doing something, but they barely touch the problem. The biggest opportunity in almost any office is the ceiling, as it’s the room’s largest unbroken surface. Treat that with an acoustic spray and problem solved!'
