Do you work in an office where noise levels are similar to those in a crowded football stadium? From colleagues' reality TV discussions to personal phone calls and work-related chatter, noise is all too common in the pervasive open office plan. The open office was designed for collaboration, breaking down walls that could be barriers to information sharing. The unforseen consequences of this office design: a lack of privacy in a noisy, distracting environment.

Did you know that each distraction takes 23 minutes to recover from? This translates into thousands of lost hours each year at organizations, at a significant and costly impact.

In a new study commissioned by Plantronics, Oxford Economics found that 63 percent of employees say they lack quiet space for focused work, which has a negative effect on their productivity, satisfaction and well-being.

Other findings:
•Only 1 percent of employees say they can block out distractions in the office, without taking extra steps. This is a dramatic decline since this study was last done, in 2015; at that time, 20 percent of employees reported that they could block out distractions.
•96 percent of executives see employee productivity as critical to their financial performance, yet just 40 percent understand the link between noise, distraction and productivity.
•A mere 6 percent of executives report having equipped their office with noise mitigating features.
•Employees in the noisiest office environments are more likely to say they may leave their job in the next six months.

The open office plan is so pervasive that epidemic noise levels have now been reached worldwide, but is anyone paying attention? Executives, this is your wake-up call! It's time to fix the problem.

Contact us to learn how to navigate in noisy office environments (Here's a hint: headsets!).