How can we reduce the discomfort brought by "open office" without partition?

byJesús Corrius

"Open office", which makes it possible to see the whole office from his / her seat, has been drawing attention as a style of modern office that gives employees an open feeling. On the other hand,The open office feels distracted"Productivity decreases"There are also employees who complain about it, and in recent years, research has been done to" How do you reduce the discomfort of the open office? "

Can 'local acoustic treatment' reduce speech distraction within open-plan offices?
https://phys.org/news/2018-05-local-acoustic-treatment-speech-distraction.html

How to Make Your Open Office Less Annoying - The Atlantic
https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2018/05/how-to-muffle-open-office-noise/559979/

In the open office work environment, my PC screen is peeped by someone who crosses behind, others are talking about voice and footsteps, my colleagues who are busy doing something while I am busy I also get frustrated by that. Although it has the advantage of being able to consult with a colleague with ease with a work problem, there are many cases that the open office feels annoyed when you want to focus alone.

In the stage of 2017, among the American companies, really70% adopt open officeThat's right. However, there are many examples of productivity falling off at the open office, and if the decrease in productivity leads to an increase in working hours, it may cause problems in health.

It is an open office where many adverse effects are reported, but if you try to resolve the open office, you need to relocate the office itself or do a large-scale construction. Therefore, from the viewpoint of "How can we alleviate discomfort at the open office?" Various lifestyle articles are made and studies are being conducted.

by泰德

The research team at the University of Sydney developed an "egg-shaped chair that covers a sitting person" and can alleviate noise problems at the open office, at the 175th meeting of the American Acoustical Society in Mississippi, USA ,Announced.

If you talk about sitting in a chair that covers the head and sitting on the roof, your voice will echo on the wall around the face and your voice will sound bigger than usual. Human beings have the habit of saying, "When I hear my voice louder, I will try to talk with a slightly lower voice", so if I sit on an egg-shaped chair, I will stop talking naturally.

Also, since the egg-shaped chair completely covers the front of the face, it is 10 dB (Db) It seems that there was also the effect of preventing surrounding noise as well. The research team said that the chair developed this time is never the best, and furniture manufacturers will be able to develop a chair that makes the open office more comfortable using the results of this research.


However, it is not necessary to take such a defense measure unless it is an open office in the first place, and it can be said that research such as "make the current situation of a miserable open office a little better" is very useless. Open-air offices with an open and free atmosphere may be superior in terms of design, but if you want to raise the efficiency of your employees it may be good to review once.