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Guy Osmond, Managing Director of Osmond Ergonomics, who has been in the business of employee wellbeing and office design for thirty years, explores the issue of managing workplace noise and distraction.


One of the issues we’ve seen rise to prominence since the pandemic is office noise, with employees seeming to struggle with distraction after so many months working from home.


While the likelihood is that offices aren’t any noisier than they were in 2019, the fact that they feel louder appears to be shaping office design. At Osmond Ergonomics, we’ve certainly seen more demand for quieter working spaces like pods and hubs or soundproof booths, and a rise in orders for sound-absorbing panels, soft furnishing, screens and green walls, which all help dampen acoustic reverberation.


Distraction and stress While noise needs to be managed, you also don’t want to eliminate it. With the prevalence of hybrid working and fewer employees in at any one time, the workplace may seem too quiet, and the resulting silence can


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feel uncomfortable, even oppressive. When a team is working quietly in a disproportionately large space, every unexpected sound feels more jarring. This explains why many companies, including my own, are opting to install loudspeakers to play soft music or white noise as staff return post-pandemic.


Although a background hubbub is more easily ignored than a sudden loud sound, an office that is too loud could elicit the same innate response over time – a hunched, closed posture, such as we adopt when startled.


If workers unknowingly respond to office noise in this way, they run the risk of developing the kind of back and neck problems usually associated with poor work setups and inappropriate furniture.


Noise can be defined as unwanted sound, so it’s undoubtedly subjective, but as any unwanted sound is a


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