Capturing the Disappearing Sounds of the Workplace | Hacker News Reader

Capturing the Disappearing Sounds of the Workplace

bbc.co.uk

41 pointsKaibeezy35 comments

Why are we romanticizing work at office?

Work from home works. It works far effectively than many people would like to admit. I think people who love work from office are also the ones who were in favor of open office plans. When open offices happened, we the ones who did not like open offices adapted as per your requirements. I guess now it's your turn to adapt?

I want to know what decides which side you are on perhaps introversion and extroversion traits? I am Introvert. Thoughts?

Maybe it'll make for good television in 10 years?

People in favor of returning to the office either have private offices at work, or small apartments with no AC. Ironically the person who favors in office the most does so much travel they are never really in the office anyway.

I have a 3000sf house with one 150sf room dedicated to working from home, air conditioning, and a solid Internet connection. My desk at work is a 6 foot surface in a wide open room with 20 other people. I can see the upside of going back into the office. It will be especially appealing once my kids are back to in-person school and my wife starts going to her office. The only thing that actually isn't appealing is the 14 mile drive to get there.

> People in favor of returning to the office either have private offices at work, or small apartments with no AC.

Children. Consistently I have noted that people who like going to the office, and work in general for that matter, almost always have children.

Small children. I've really enjoyed (what little I got of) my kid's company over the last year, with him doing school and me working, both from home. But then, he turned 18 this spring.

People that don't want to spend 24h a day at home, especially small homes, without AC, which is most of them

The office is one of the last socializing places for adults

But if you like to be alone and at home, that is great

I heard a lot of people say the remote work lifestyle would become a lot more sociable once the lockdowns were over. At least in CA the lockdowns have been over for 6 weeks now. I still feel isolated at home.

The lockdowns have little bearing on severity of the ongoing pandemic. The lockdowns ended, but did you change your lifestyle? I don't think it's fair to say we're in a 'sociable' era once more unless you (or we) decide to engage in that level of risk (in my opinion, of course).

I don't want to sound accusatory with this at all, so I apologize in advance if that's what it sounds like. I'm merely speaking from experience.

"Remote work lifestyle" is what you make of it. During lockdown, many of us were forced into -a- lifestyle. People adapted how they could to the new circumstances, some developed healthy habits, others less so. Now circumstances changed again, but it does not constitute a break, like lockdown did. Point being, you need to look at what you're allowed to do (and okay with doing!) in the current context, and incorporate that in your life.

If you work with other people, there will likely be others that enjoy physically socializing. Try pushing for a slack/discord/whatever platform you use channel for people to schedule out-of-work meetings. Sell it (if you have to) as teambuilding. This kind of thing has existed in many workplaces I've had knowledge of with (and even without!) remote workers.

As an example, a friend's team had a couple of people who lived alone in town craving social contact; so they started scheduling Friday night dinners/late night talks at each of their houses in turn. The other members of the team have patios, so they can just sit outside, drink some beers, and do the socializing there. Sometimes they go out to restaurants, other times they order in some pizza. It works, and it created a much more positive team environment between everyone.

Now, that might not necessarily be you - and it may actually be that you're one of those people that fully remote work doesn't work for - in which case not a ton can be done, and I'm sure there will be workplaces that will accommodate you. I'd even daresay those will be the majority. But you can give it a try, if you see any benefits at all from remote work.

My child's daycare is right by my workplace. Working from home would mean a double commute, not interested.

Finding a new daycare where I live would be very difficult, as there is a severe shortage of daycare spots here, with several years long waitlists.

Fine, then _you_ can work in the office, why does it mean everyone else has to, too?

People who want to work remotely aren't interested in forcing others to do so.

Of course not. Just stating another valid reason why people would want to work in the office.

In general that's true. Although remote people in groups that generally didn't have people who were routinely remote pre-pandemic will expect those groups to accommodate them going forward. For example, by having people in meetings calling in from their desks.

Yes, you absolutely are, every third comment on a remote work thread is about how people in an office can't be allowed to just talk to each other, but must always go through videoconferencing software to include the remote workers. At that point you're still working remotely, you're just doing it in close proximity.

Isn’t this article about the sound of non-office work places like medical facilities and manufacturing sites? Seems a bit off topic to turn this in to yet another discussion about remote work. Or at least if we’re going to talk about remote work can we talk about it in the context of the kind of work that’s hard to do remote?

I think for us computer guys, the noise in the office is not something we miss... People interrupting eachother with loud conversations and loud laughing is what I remember. I don't miss it.

In my view, the mainstream mass-office environment is the result of something like an evolutionary process -- a series of gradual adaptations to changing conditions. And management habits subsequently adapted themselves to that environment.

Some of those conditions no longer exist, but like Chesterton's fence, we're hesitant to get rid of the physical and cultural manifestations of the mass-office if we can't figure out why it existed in the first place.

One seemingly obvious reason was that people needed access to the tools and materials of their work. (Before ca. 1990, information was a "material"). And there was really only one practical means for workers to interact and share information in groups.

The rest is history. ;-)

Some people adapted their work and life to the mass-office, others didn't. The person whose day care is across the street from the office has made such an adaptation. For others, the mass-office was a hell that they tolerated because they needed the money, e.g., with continual distraction and hours of commuting per week as a form of unpaid labor.

Then the pandemic threw everything into disarray and pressed a giant Reset button.

Today, I think it's fair to say that we don't know what works. The mass-office worked for some but not others. I have little doubt that working from home will work for some but not for others. None of us know what new adaptations will emerge, or how management will adapt.

So far management wants to hang onto the habits that they were familiar with, so they want us back in the office, but they can't articulate why. The "collaboration" argument was used to herd us into open plan offices, with a possible negative effect on collaboration, so that card has been played.

We don't know what management techniques will work in the new environment. The factory style "line foreman" was an easy role to fill with a large cadre of minimally educated workers. At my own workplace, the teams that transitioned the most successfully to remote work were the ones where people were largely self directed in the first place.

I think the real reason managers want people back in the office is because they know most workers are not self motivated. They know the work is really boring, and they know that employees feel that way too.

Not many people have their life mission as sitting in meetings talking about company goals not being met and trying to care about the owners not getting more successful and rich.

I'm an introvert, and I'm not a fan of open office plans, and I don't have kids, but even so I prefer working in the office.

I would otherwise be spending nearly 100% of my time in my apartment, not getting even the smallest amount of exercise, fresh air, or social interaction, and dealing with noise and interruptions from my wife and dog. Also, I live a 5-minute drive or a 25-minute walk (!) away from work. It gives me a reason to get up in the morning, shower, put on something other than sweat pants, and go outside. My workplace is somewhat more quiet and comfortable, it provides drinks and sometimes food, and I find meetings a bit more engaging in person.

It ultimately comes down to individual situations and preferences.

I've been more remote than not (with a lot of travel normally) for 15+ years. But if I could easily walk to the office, rather than drive for 30 minutes, I'd probably go in a lot more just to break up the routine even if I didn't need to.

30 minutes by car isn't a bad commute. But it's enough that I don't see a reason to do it if there's no real benefit. (Most of the people I work with are in different offices or remote.)

> I would otherwise be spending nearly 100% of my time in my apartment, not getting even the smallest amount of exercise, fresh air, or social interaction, and dealing with noise and interruptions from my wife and dog. Also, I live a 5-minute drive or a 25-minute walk (!) away from work. It gives me a reason to get up in the morning, shower, put on something other than sweat pants, and go outside. My workplace is somewhat more quiet and comfortable, it provides drinks and sometimes food, and I find meetings a bit more engaging in person.

I suspect this is how everybody who likes the office feels like - they don't want to stay at home because their life would be miserable if they do.

But I want people to be aware that there are people who feel equally strong about how going to the office makes them feel equally miserable. Some reasons: constant interruptions by noise, movements, smells, constant feeling of not making progress in learning something or accomplishing something, constant awareness of watching people suck up to the boss and other "important" people in a way that is fake and just career building, etc.

There is an awesome YouTuber named Joshua Fluke that has been very open for years about how the office is extreamly cringe once you get some distance to it: https://youtube.com/c/JoshuaFluke1

Is the article romanticizing work at an office? It seems like they just want a historical sound registery of different work environments. Cataloging something in a history book doesn't mean we're romanticizing it, and neither does a registry of sounds.

> Why are we romanticizing work at office?

For many months news outlets have been pushing work-from-office narratives. The PR companies that want people to go to another location to work (the ones that represent office building companies, starbucks, etc) create stores, images, quotes etc, all ready to publish, allowing a news site to slap a byline on, and they get their narrative out - "Churnalism"

I hate open office plans. I dislike being crowded in an office. I do prefer being alone in an office space though, or in a coworking space that has an office with a door.

I just work better if I go to "work place" work and then come home. Yes, I could get a new living place with an extra room for an office, but at that point I'm subsidizing my employer quite a lot.

Corporate accounts payable, Nina speaking. Just a moment.

Loud chewing.

but why?

seriously, all I want is to forget that kind of sound.

It will be gone before you realize we should have preserved it.

I once worked in an open office where testing and editing ringtones was the business. No sound studios, no headphones even!

The straw that broke the camels back, for me, was Gilbert Gottfried’s ringtones. All day long for what seemed like eternity, but was only weeks.

Perhaps some common office sounds should be recorded for perpetuity; many, if not most, should be nuked from orbit.

I'm not really going to miss it at all, but preservation is preservation.

I’d like to have a comparison of workspace ambience as decades flow by. The difference between 1970s office and 1990s and now. That kind of thing. Would make a nice movie.

My current workplace is so quiet. Even when they went to an open layout. Sometimes you hear keyboards, or quiet conversations. Not too intrusive, when I need to really get in the zone I throw on headphones with music anyway, just like I do at home.

The MRI had me smiling - patients get earplugs and earmuffs and the rooms are heavily sound insulated. No one ever wanted that noise.

Having been though a few MRI scanners I agree.

For those that haven't had an MRI it a very loud grinding sound and quite claustrophobic.

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