This one item will change your life. It’s a productivity hack and a stress buster. It’s a privacy protector and a work-life balancer. It’s a buzzword-loaded beauty, and if you’re fancy, it’s made of oak. This item is a door, which you can close to separate you from your officemates for just 10 — no 20! — minutes of quiet time.
For better or worse, the luxury of a door is one employees in an open offices do not have. Here’s how those folks can pull off a productive work environment with their sanity in tact:
Noise Nuances
Forced conversation about the weather (it’s warm for this time of year, isn’t it?). Your co-worker’s debriefing of her weekend activities (visiting with the in-laws, which was a disaster). Phones that won’t stop bleating. Printers that won’t stop wheezing. Trying to concentrate with a relentless swarm of noises in your ears is like trying to eat an ice cream with a swarm of bees in your face — it gets tricky.
You’re not the only one feeling on edge from the auditory assaults. A 2013 University of Sydney study, based on 42,000 survey responses across four countries, showed that about 30 percent of cubicle workers and roughly 25 percent of those in open offices without partitions were dissatisfied with the level of noise in their workplaces. A 2011 Hong Kong Polytechnic University survey of 259 office workers revealed that sound (along with temperature) mattered most to their productivity. The surveyed workers’ top sound-related annoyances? Conversations, ringing phones and machines. Here’s a look at how to combat these factors:
Speak up to loud talkers. You know that person who speaks a few hairs louder than what should be socially acceptable? It’s this person’s dentist appointment you can hear being scheduled from the other side of the room, and it’s this person’s voice that’s piercing your safe bubble of peace, quiet and productivity.
Say something to the loud talker if he or she is distracting, urges Diane Gottsman, national etiquette expert and owner of The Protocol School of Texas.
Give your co-worker the benefit of the doubt when you approach him or her, she says, by saying something like “John, you probably don’t even realize how much your voice carries.” Then explain that you’re having a hard time concentrating and would he please take it down a notch? “It’s all about stating your case politely and respectfully,” Gottsman says.
If John doesn’t take it well or continues to chat about his project’s progress as if he’s announcing it from a mountaintop, discuss the matter with your manager. Again, Gottsman says, be sure to state how this issue affects your productivity.
Discuss distracting group conversations. As with the loud talker, “pleasantly approach” a rambunctious group and explain that you’re having difficulty concentrating, Gottsman says. Ask if they could please take their conversation somewhere else, like the break room, and they’ll likely comply.
You could also bring up the issue at a team or staff meeting. “Without pointing fingers,” Gottsman says, start off with something like this: “I don’t know if anyone else is having this problem, but I’m really having difficulty concentrating because there are so many distractions.” Then throw out a few options for fixing the problem together, like taking long conversations to the kitchen or break room.
Drown out ringing phones and noisy office machines. Unfortunately, you likely have much less control over the volume of these devices. As Julie Morgenstern, professional organizer and author of “Time Management from the Inside Out” puts it: “Ringing phones are ringing phones.”
She suggests sporting headphones and listening to recordings of ambient or white noise, which you can find with a quick Google search. Music can help, too, so long as it doesn’t have lyrics, which can be distracting. Morgenstern suggests classical music, which “can put you in a very relaxed and focused state of mind.”
Germ Jungle
Here’s a familiar workplace nightmare that’s right up there with an empty coffee pot or an 8:30 a.m. meeting: a co-worker sneezing or coughing 3 feet away from you. Sick colleagues, wandering like zombies and touching the same railings, doorknobs and countertops as you is already a frightening thought. Add the fact that Massachusetts Institute of Technology scientists recently discovered coughs and sneezes travel much farther than previously believed — thanks to an invisible, germ-filled cloud — and you’ve got the makings of a horror film.
Given the close seating of open office workers, it shouldn’t be surprising that they’re often susceptible to catching whatever sickness is making the rounds. In fact, a 2011 study in the Scandinavian Journal of Work, Environment & Health found that workers in open-office plans took 62 percent more sick days than those who worked in closed offices. Here’s how to stay healthy:
Disinfect germ hotspots. In a U.S. News Health & Wellness article, Charles Gerba, microbiologist and co-author of “The Germ Freak’s Guide to Outwitting Colds and Flu,” identifies the break room as the most germ-ridden part of the office. Fortunately, there’s a relatively easy fix to reduce the number of viruses floating around the office: regularly cleaning the break room countertops, tabletops and coffee pot handles with disinfectant wipes. You can do the wiping yourself, or discuss the practice with the office manager or maintenance staff.
Gerba lists other germ magnets in your office: the mouse, keyboard and computer. Clean these items with disinfectant wipes once per day during cold and flu season, Gerba says.
Voice concerns about contagious co-workers. As for your colleague perfecting the hacking-and-typing skill an arm’s length away from your lunch, Gottsman suggests confidentially discussing the problem with your manager. Suggest a policy that urges people with fevers and contagious illnesses to stay home, whether they take sick days or work remotely, she says.
And if you’re trying to be that hero, sweating both fever and deadline, consider the health of your officemates. “It’s about being respectful to your co-workers by not spreading the germs,” Gottsman says. If you do find yourself sniffling and sneezing at work, keep your germs to yourself, especially given that they don’t have to travel far to reach your neighbor’s keyboard. Remember: Wash your hands often, and cough and sneeze into your elbow or into a tissue that you immediately pitch.
More from U.S. News
8 Ways to Destroy Workplace Distractions
How to Survive in an Open Plan Office
5 Open Office Nightmares and How to Survive Them originally appeared on usnews.com