Five ways to reduce sound pollution in your office this Christmas

Whether it’s Mariah Carey‘s All I Want for Christmas playing on repeat, the sales team coming back from boozy client lunches in high spirits or colleagues chatting about their Christmas plans, the festive season can be a noisy time in the office. Which is why we’ve put together some top tips for reducing sound pollution wherever you work.

1/ Education: make sure everyone is aware of the office etiquette around sound in the office. This could include reminding people about taking lengthy phonecalls in private areas, booking meeting rooms for discussions, being mindful of disturbing people with personal discussions or post-lunch celebrations or even limiting the amount of Christmas music that can be played. Not everyone wants to listen to Shakin’ Stevens all day.

2/ Speak up: Encourage a culture of openness in your workplace. That way people will be happy to speak up when noise levels are driving them to distraction rather than suffer in silence.

3/ Relax rules on headphones: many offices ban headphones at work believeing them to hamper collaboration. But the festive season might be the time to rethink this policy and allow some leniency, particularly in the afternoons when noise increases. Headphones not only block out unwanted sound but they can help to indicate to others that the person is focused and doesn’t want to be interrupted.

4/ Design your workplace with sound in mind. Despite sound privacy being the biggest drain on employee morale, according to a study from the University of Sydney, sound is an afterthought in many office designs. By thinking about noise from the outset, designers can create quiet spaces for focused work, pods for phone calls and private discussions, and loud spaces for collaboration, interaction and general discussion. Just make sure people are told the purpose of each space.

5/ Absorb sound: if a full refurb is a few years away, then consider bringing in softer materials to soak up the sound and stop it literally bouncing off the walls. Rugs and cushions are great temporary fixes but our acoustic panels, which can sit unobtrusively on the walls or ceiling, can soak up to 1.0 NRC making a substantial impact on the office environment and ensuring everyone can have some festive cheer.