OK so I've been working from an open office for like 8 months now and I genuinely thought I was losing my mind. Like, I'd sit down to do something that should take 30 minutes and 3 hours later I'm still on paragraph one, completely fried, having absorbed literally nothing. I kept blaming myself - "why can't I just focus like everyone else?" Spoiler: it wasn't me being lazy or broken, it was the constant auditory assault my brain was trying to process.
Here's what I didn't realize: brains have this thing where they can filter out background noise. Like, they genuinely don't hear Karen from accounting talking about her weekend or the guy two desks over clicking his pen 47 times a minute. Their brains just... ignore it.
Our brains? Nah. We're out here processing EVERY. SINGLE. SOUND. at the same priority level as the actual work we're trying to do. The HVAC humming, someone unwrapping a granola bar, distant keyboard clicks, that one person who insists on taking calls at their desk - it all hits at once and our executive function just goes "lol good luck buddy."
I started wearing earplugs during focus time and holy shit, the difference is unreal. Not the foam ones that make everything sound underwater - I got ones that just take the edge off ambient noise without completely isolating me (because I still need to hear if someone's directly talking to me or there's a fire alarm or whatever). It's like... my brain finally has permission to focus on ONE thing instead of simultaneously tracking 15 different sound sources. My actual productivity probably doubled in the first week.
The weird part? Nobody even notices. I was so anxious about looking "antisocial" but literally no one cares. And on the rare occasion someone asks, I just say "sensory thing" and people get it.
Anyone else deal with this? What's your strategy?
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Noise canceling headphones are also a huge upgrade, with or without music playing.
Which ones would you recommend? AirPod pros aren’t enough for me I’m afraid
bose 100%! i love em, even upgraded to a newer one last year during black friday! the regular quiet comforts fit my head well + they’re always on sale now :)
FYI active noise cancelling really works best when you have some kind of sound playing. Don't expect them to block very much sound unless you have something playing to replace it. Even if you just play a very low level of white noise or something like that, they will work a lot better than with nothing on at all.
I say all this because someone I know thought they would work like earplugs but they don't.
They also have actual electronic earplugs that are made for live music that you might consider if you never want to use them for playing media.
Das, oder man hört nebenbei ASMR Historian (unbezahlte Werbung!) 😂👀
I really think there is a huge overlap between ADHD and misophonia.
This! We have low cubes, and it's horrible. The constant noise at the office had me near a meltdown. I snapped one day and had an... episode.
I now wear noise canceling headphones with binaural noise when I need to focus; podcasts if it's not something that needs deep attention. They save s my sanity and my job.
My coworkers are aware that the earbuds are in and now walk into my line of vision when they need me. Consensus is that Im scary enough without pushing anymore buttons!
I'm sorry the environment dragged you to the snapping point!
has happened to me as well and i felt so guilty, like I'd frightened people.
getting pulled out of a deep, productive flow state for me is like being shaken awake during a nice dream...
thankfully I now work on teams where we set working agreements up front, and most people appreciate a kind of "if the headphones are rockin' don't come knockin'" agreement.
on one team we all brought in small stuffed animals: if they were on the desk, that meant "do not disturb"
Ha, even myown voice!
I think that's also why I speak softly; my own voice sounds super loud to me.
Das fühle ich. Die Welt ist zu laut. Seltsamerweise bin ich niemals von Naturgeräuschen wie Vogelzwitschern oder Füchsen in der Paarungszeit genervt. Warum nur 👀👀👀😂
So glad you found something that works for you! Some people love the background noise, but I can't stand it (unless I'm controlling it).
Accepting that I DO get overstimulated by noise was big for me. When I finally started carrying Loops and foam earplugs in my daily bag, it just... took the edge off. Now when I'm getting dis-regulated or irritable, I just shove 'em in, and life is so much easier.
This is really relatable. Growing up, my brother would make ungodly amounts of noise (he has Autism) and I found the only way to stay sane was with earbuds. I wouldn't even need to play any music, I just needed to take the edge off. Now I'm older and have kids, I'll sometimes wear my air pods so they can be loud/be kids and I can still think. I never had myself pegged as having auditory processing issues since loud noises etc aren't a problem for me, but I definitely find it hard to think when it's people-noise. Like, reading while people are talking around me is basically impossible.
I need headphones for work that block sounds and talking 😭 that fit over my glasses too. I relate to this so hard and I dread going to work
Not sponsored in any way, but I use Nothing headphones, I actually prefer those to my Bose ones - there better when I'm wearing glasses.
And yes, it seems we have a lot more auditory issues than others - I have the holy trifecta of misophonia, tinnitus and hyperacusia. Thankfully not too bad, so I can control it most of the time...
Thank you so much for the rec! I try looking online but it's just so saturated sifting through everything not knowing what's actually good.
And damn dude that's rough. It definetly sucks! I even moved desks at work but it's still too much. I have shitty headphones, and it hurts my head lol. I don't wanna hear 3 convos instead of my podcast and machinery and door slams and smell 50 smells on top of it. Sensory overload lol.
Ouch, I feel you! I'd go absolutely bonkers without my music/sounds and noise cancellation... Can you get your workplace to get you good headphones? I don't know about what rules apply to you, but here in Norway, any employer is obligated to make reasonable accommodations such as that. Or try to hold of some decent ones cheap(ish)ly, they really do make all the difference.
As for the smells, I'd recommend getting some kind of strong, but nice-smelling balm or something (Tiger Balm is very effective, although be prepared for the effect on your skin!) and rub a tiny amount between your nose and upper lip. Make sure it's a smell you tolerate, of course!
Great idea! Man that's awesome Norway does that. I wish I lived there. I have Norwegian in my nationality. Unfortunately I live in America. And I work for a small company that doesn't seem to care about much or our health. I am trying to get a different job. But yeah, I have to buy my own headphones.
I hope you find some that are affordable and good! I take it you can't really use the argument that you do a much better job? But the upside is that they're yours to do with as you want if you buy them yourself. Try out a couple in the store to see which ones fit your head, ears and sensitivity - and best of luck!
I picked up a pair of Soundcore Space Q45s on sale and for the price they're quite good with the noise cancelling and how comfortable they've been. Bonus is they can connect to my work computer and my phone at the same time. I also wear glasses and they don't seem to press in on the glasses frame too much. The only thing is remembering to charge them. There are definitely headsets with better noise cancelling, but not for the same price point.
Yes affordability is important for sure. Thank you!
Unbezahlte Werbung: Huawei 4i in ear earpods. Benutze ich seit 5 Jahren und bin sehr zufrieden
I do worse with the visual distractions of an open office. People constantly walking around. I use rolling whiteboards to build walls when I can and I wear a hood sometimes to focus and hope no one important walks by.
Although in an old office they put in a foosball table twenty feet from my desk and I kept stealing the balls. I am happy with work-related chatter around me (if it's happening at a reasonable volume), that puts me in a focus mood. But obnoxious noises all day long is insane. My manager knew and I begged to be allowed to move the table back to the break room where it had come from originally and he said no. Booo.
The open office I was in had white noise generators but you didn't notice its presence until it was turned off. Only then could you hear people on the other side of the building, when normally it was only the people in your own row and only if they were being louder than normal. It was amazing how much it squelched noises.
As an added bonus, it allowed me to retrain my brain to hear my tinnitus as white noise instead of the constant feedback noise I was so used to.
Yeeeeeep. I splurged on a pair of Bose Quiet Comforts about eight years ago and they’re still going strong (I’ve just had to replace the ear pads). Recommend a good pair of over-ear headphones with ANC (active noise cancellation). You might actually be able to get work to chip in/pay for them if you have a diagnosis. They help!
I've just made it my new year's goal to put headphones in at work.
I haven't been using mine because my team operates in a very toxic communication style: information are passed on through whisper of gossips from the manager to whoever she wants to hear the information. Plus she tends to yell your name from her office like a dog to get you to come over to her office.
I've been doing so badly mentally this year. I think it was because:
I'm in software development but with outsourced developers, which means our team is pretty much the "user-facing" side and almost all my team does support desks stuff along their main role.
We work beside our corporate group's IT department.
There's constantly people on calls, in meetings (people love taking meetings at their desks), chatting between people in person, my manager shouting (she just talks really loudly normally), people walking around, keyboard sound, the lift noises, people going to bathrooms (they're designed to be like fire exit level of protection kind of door, very heavy and very loud), people walking up and down the stairs, sounds from the work cafeteria downstairs, constant visitors coming in and getting introduced to our company by walking around and showing us off like zoo animals ("this is xyz department!")...
Plus the coworkers I sit with are VERY catty and negative. Just all day long bitching sessions about so and so and man it just induce so much negativity in my brain, puts me in a bad mood mentally and I spiral on "why can't everyone just be nice" and getting frustrated and also feeling like I have to help fix the tension/drama.... NO!
I've had enough. I almost had a panic attack from burnout/overstimulation last week, I can't keep going like this.
Du suchst hoffentlich parallel nach einem neuen Job? Das wäre sicher das Beste in dieser Situation.
Yeah I'm on the lookout for new jobs and have been applying.
Definitely a tough balance between taking a good break and looking & applying for jobs when I'm at home though, I'm finding myself too much of a zombie more often recently.
But yeah, it is not sustainable for me long term to stay at this hella toxic place.
When I worked in an open office it never bothered me. It was like white noise. Working in an office with cubicles, though? Me and everyone else are super close to each other, some people forget and some play music. It's more annoying to me. I did get noise cancelling headphones though
Noise canceling headphones playing lofi music with no lyrics. Monitors positioned ergonomically but also blocking most of my field of view. A busy light I can use to tell people to not bug me when I’m focused.
What i did not realize before getting ADHD diagnose was that i could not work on office where were a lot of fluorescent tubes just above desks. I just thought i hate bright lights but apparently it's just one of the upgrades ADHD gives you.
But i also just love being in dark.
Leuchtstoffröhren flackern. Immer. Auch wenn du es nicht siehst. Aber ich denke, dass das Gehirn es trotzdem wahrnimmt.
They do flicker yes but it's also super harsh light setup that was build before vdu tasks became more common since it was older building.
I have the Sony Wh-1000xm4. I literally use them as ear muffs with active noise cancelling and no music. Open plan offices get so noisy that I can’t hear myself think and I get so exhausted from the constant overstimulation
"Lol good luck buddy"
FELT THIS SO HARD!!!
Im kinda the same, if there's too much going on I can't focus, but if there's NOTHING i feel like something bad is gonna happen. "The calm before the storm"
I'm have so much constant brain noise and outside noise on top of it is incredibly overstimulating. I find having YouTube videos playing near me helps block out the constant brain noise, that or music. But if I can hear outside nouse breaking through I start to get overstimulated.
Mich stört dabei nur die Werbung in den Videos. Die ist 3x lauter und reißt mich immer aus meiner Konzentration 😫
You've just reminded me of hearing a noise no one else did, and I even managed to identify what it was before we all found out.
The first year building in my art school is fairly open studio, but kind of walled off with different areas. At the end of first year it's a lot more chaotic, because ofc, we are all relaxing for summer break. I was trying really hard to do some reserch in studio and all I could hear was this high pitched squeak, like a dog toy... so was massively off putting, especially over the excitable ruckus if everyone else. Fast forward to just after lunchtime, the noise has been driving me crazy, it finaly clicks. It sounds like a squeaky duck toy for the bath. Then, just after, a student running for something comes round as part of a campaign. Guess what she used for her promotion? Small platic duck, or stickers. I immediately had to tel her it's her fault I've been feeling like I was stuck at a dog park all day (said in light humour ofc) and everyone was legit confused. Apparently I was tho only one who heard it, and was distracted by it. So ofc, had to take the duck and squeak it like crazy in the last hour for spite. Felt good.
TLDR; I had no idea my hearing sensitivities and ability to hear too much at once was an ADHD thing. Will wear my gig earplugs more often in my studio to test.
When I use to work in retail, the music being played annoyed me so much. Like it was always in the back of my ear, and the volume made even more annoying. It’d low enough where you can’t clearly make out the words, or even what song is playing, but loud enough to just hear it. I almost would prefer it to be louder.
Headphones. At home I can deal without them but in the office if I can't drown out the office with music (usually the same song on repeat) I can't work.
I listen to music. If the words are too much for your brain to focus, maybe classical. Then my brain focuses on 1 distracting noise vs 300.
Noise cancelling headphones. I realized how bad office were for me the day I forgot my headphone at home, couldn’t work for the whole day.
Just to give you a slight example, I went to the theater with my girlfriend to see something called « The jury experience ». The crowd can vote to shift the direction of a trial. I was laser focused trying to gather the false evidences, i had everything in my head. Then, the actor playing the potentiel killer started to act nervous when an accusation was said. He started to click his pen once every 2-3 seconds to show anxiety. I have not a single idea of what was said during the 5 minutes he did this. By the Time i could generate a clear thought, a new click would send me back to the fog. So imagine a full open Space haha
Noise cancelling headphones with Spotify and a bunch of albums downloaded is how i work in open plan
My recommendation is either instrumental or jazz to avoid being distracted by lyrics or lyrics in a foreign language eg KPop
I've never been super bothered by noise, my brain filters noise just fine most of the time. However, noise cancelling headphones were still a gamechanger.
Please stop these chat gp.. t posts!
Meine Strategie war es immer, mir Jobs zu suchen in denen ich kaum menschlichen Kontakt habe. Ich erinnere mich an einen Mann aus den USA, der seine Autowaschanlage nur mit Autisten (Ich bin auch einer) besetzt hat. Die Kunden waren sehr zufrieden mit dem guten Service und haben die Grenzen der Angestellten respektiert.
Edit: Es gibt Ohrstöpsel aus Silikon mlt einem "Tunnel" bzw Loch, die den schall reduzieren ohne ihn zu blockieren. Sind aber, wie ich finde, ziemlich teuer.