In the open-plan office, wireless headphones are the new cubicles

My new office is full of people with wireless noise-cancelling headphones. Which sounds pleasant until people start firing up conference calls with other remote workers.

The lack of auditory feedback to the ears results in people talking 2 or 3 times louder than if they were on a wired telephone (and we have none of those).

I complain about the noise level and the response from management has been “well, maybe you should get some noise-canceling headphones”

This is fucking madness.

People are trying to recreate the barriers that were removed. I don’t blame them.

I know that an open office environment is absolutely not for me. I value being able to close my door and focus on my work without others bothering me.

It also means that I don’t have to constantly spend energy worrying that everyone will see every single thing that’s on my computer screen.

Yeah, my current choices are music in headphones or office noise, neither of which is silence, which is a shame.

without the physical boundary

which matters