Author: Gavin Bradley,  Jan 4^th 2023

Employers need to offer workers a solutions to escape noisy office spaces to allow them to concentrate on their work, according to international benchmarking research by global real estate consultancy Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL)..

The Hybrid Work Decoded report shows that excessive noise is fraying office relationships, with workers reporting snapping at colleagues (17%), and their bosses (12%), raising grievances (16%), and leaving passive-aggressive notes (11%).

High levels of excessive noise can cause permanent health damage, and 15% of UK office workers say that their workplaces have damaged their hearing. Additionally, a fifth say it led to disturbed sleep and a quarter reported stress owing to noise levels in their office.

The World Health Organization (WHO) states that excess noise is harmful to health, and when asked, only a third of UK workers associated excessive noise with hearing loss, and high blood pressure, and just one in seven understood that it could lead to diabetes, stroke, heart disease and heart attacks.

Despite the ill effects of too much noise, some employees say that most companies have made some adjustments to the office environment, with only a third saying that nothing had been done.

Common adaptations include installing physical barriers (26%), soundproofing (21%), training for noisy people (25%), and implementing quiet zones (25%). Other adjustments include moving a loud team (18%). One in seven workers said their boss had fired someone for being too noisy.

The range of solutions to absorb or reduce noise continues to expand. Yo-Yo POD^® is an innovative and unique acoustic office booth which plays on being mobile, modular and multifunctional. Yo-Yo POD^® MEET is ideal for dividing any workspace and creating defined collaborative meeting areas. Most importantly it can be configured and reconfigured in seconds:

• Enabling users to benefit from the removal of unwanted noise
• Reducing voice levels as employees can speak more softly
• Creating greater visual privacy from the other team members in the office

Offices which have deployed Yo-Yo POD^® as a mobile and modular office pod have experienced improved levels of concentration and more positive mood affects. They have also reported a marked reduction of stress levels in offices which had exceptionally high noise levels.