First of all, the researchers asked 118 female secondary school students to complete a questionnaire, which revealed how extroverted or introverted each was – essentially, whether they thrive on socialising and being immersed in the outside world or if they find these experiences exhausting. So why aren’t we all affected by noise in the same way? Back in 2011, researchers from University College London and the University of London decided to find out. The offending noises range from those we can all relate to, such as the whistling of obnoxiously cheery colleagues or when people say “ahh” after drinking to slightly, err, less reasonable complaints, like when people swallow or breathe. Misophonia is a mysterious, newly recognised disorder in which certain everyday sounds can trigger extreme anxiety, rage or panic. Some companies even override individual preferences altogether and broadcast music around entire offices in an attempt to improve their employees’ productivity.Īt the other end of the spectrum are those with such an extreme aversion to sound that it qualifies as a condition. Others liked it for the exact opposite reason – that it provided a welcome distraction while they worked. Some said they thought it helped them to concentrate. Working to music is also extremely common a 2011 study of nearly 300 office employees in the UK showed that, on average, they spent nearly a third of their working week listening to various genres.

Bizarrely, the video Office Sound 2 Hours – which involves exactly what the title suggests, namely two hours of authentic office clatter – currently has around 1,864,570 views on YouTube.

At one end of the scale, workers may actively enjoy the ambience of a noisy office. Why do we find it so hard to be around these everyday noises? What is it about them that allows them to lodge in our brains and make it impossible to think?įirst up, there is an extraordinary amount of variability in what individuals can tolerate.

According to a 2015 survey of the most annoying office noises by Avanta Serviced Office Group, conversations were rated the most vexing, closely followed by coughing, sneezing and sniffing, loud phone voices, ringing phones and whistling.

Extremely annoying sounds