[smashy]

Imagine an open space environment with a huge sales team of noisy people. The type that are so competitive that each one speaks on the phone like the person on the other end is deaf.

I can't seem to work in this type of environment, it blocks my concentration and give me headaches. But it seems some people thrive in this type of environment, E's, maybe? I can't even understand how someone likes this.

So, imagine you just started working for a new company and this is the type of environment. The company is spread over 4 floors. Your manager even asked you if you think there's too much noise there. Would you ask your manager to move to a more quiet floor?

Just so you know, this is not happening to me, but to a friend that's also an INTJ and was complaining to me about it. How I understand him!

[Plane Stress]

I can't stand working in that sort of an environment either. Aside from all the noise, I also really hate working while being observed, it makes me really uncomfortable.

[SeaCzar]

	Originally Posted by smashy To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 2 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
	I can't seem to work in this type of environment, it blocks my concentration and give me headaches. But it seems some people thrive in this type of environment, E's, maybe? I can't even understand how someone likes this.

I totally agree with this. Noisy places and people give me headaches too, and your right, I cannot even think. I could never work in such an anvironment.

[cmrain]

That type of environment isn't conducive to deep thought.

It is inherently unappealing.

If I needed to walk in there and make a verbal exchange with someone or make a phone call to set up a meeting, great! Something primarily communication oriented that requires action without a lot of thought? That can work.

I need close to total silence to focus. I can't even study in a Starbucks. My retention of information is pathetic.

[Tenacious B]

Noise canceling headphones - my entire office uses them.

[Mader]

Why was the friend put in with the salespeople?
As long as your friend is not part of the sales team she should be able to move. but depending on the job may need to be very close. Salespeople know they are loud and obnoxious, as do their bosses. But, salespeople can also be big babies who need lots of kisses and hugs and other ego boosts - loud can mean excitement or pride in having a good conversation with a customer.

Ask the supervisor if it would be possible to move, "I don't need anything big" but I would be more concerned about making your own phone calls with all the background noise. You might want to look around for an empty desk before you go to the boss.

Oh, if the salespeople ever start yelling or swearing, much the better for you - can't have the customers hearing that stuff. Just try to avoid coming off as stiff or inflexible or rigid. Smile a lot. Why? Doesn't matter, "they" like smiling, salespeople like "good morning" and "time to go, see you tomorrow" "They" may not understand your need for quiet, salespeople are not always real deep thinkers.

[Krazy P]

Agree completely.

We have a team of programmers and they are in tight quarters and they swear by them.

	Originally Posted by Tenacious B To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 2 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
	Noise canceling headphones - my entire office uses them.

[smashy]

The problem with the headphones is that that way he'll be in his "world" all day long, without engaging in the small talk with colleagues and will start to be perceived as not part of the team.

[MaleVolentworld]

Noisy environment = no thinking environment. I mean, for me, my thinking is severly hampered if there is too much noise. I can't concentrate, my mind annoyingly wants to listen to people talk crap on the phone.

I'm best when there is total silence, which never happens at work, too many interruptions and noise.

[searcheagle]

	Originally Posted by MaleVolentworld To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 2 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
	Noisy environment = no thinking environment. I mean, for me, my thinking is severly hampered if there is too much noise. I can't concentrate, my mind annoyingly wants to listen to people talk crap on the phone. I'm best when there is total silence, which never happens at work, too many interruptions and noise.

Not to mention that chaos outside makes talking with customers in a professional way pretty much impossible. Not to mention what all the noise is causing your clients to think on the other end of the phone.

I should also add that I use headphones at work (although in a much quieter atmosphere.) I can always tell when people are talking to me, but I may need the first line repeated if I didn't catch what they were saying to me until the end of the sentence.

[jkatra]

	Originally Posted by smashy To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 2 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
	Just so you know, this is not happening to me, but to a friend that's also an INTJ and was complaining to me about it. How I understand him!

What does the INTJ do there for a job? If they're involved with analytical and cerebral activities, then they might have a good excuse to request moving to a different floor. Analysis requires concentration, and salespeople are infamous for being perpetual distractions. I agree with you that headphones would start placing them as outside of the team, but working on a different floor might do the same thing. I work in an actuarial department in an insurance company where I do a large amount of quantitative analysis for the sales and marketing department... even though my work is aimed at sales and marketing, I could never work in sales and marketing because of the noise level and lack of analytical thinking.

[Lolie]

A good quality headset is only part of the answer. Surveying the rest of the team to find out whether it's a problem for other workers (and if they're all being loud all of the time, it probably is) is another. There may be some relatively low cost option for improving the acoustics of the room to absorb some of the sound.

A word of caution about headsets. Unless you're willing to spring for the very best on the market (in the hundreds of dollars range), you need to familiarise yourself with guidelines for minimising the risk of acoustic shock. When you can't control the risk factors, you need to think very carefully before choosing binaural or in the ear headsets (and I wouldn't use either in an environment where there are going to be "live" cell phones within close range).

[2obvious]

If there are so many problems of social dynamics at the onset of a new position, your friend isn't really putting a great deal of thought into his career choices.

On a more constructive note: he should chalk this up to a lesson learned. In future job searches, he should be more cognizant of the work environment. Ask for a tour of the work area. Ask if it's kind of place where people each lunch together or hit a happy hour after work. Ask if teams tend to communicate via phone calls, IMs, emails, or taps on the shoulder.

This is all very avoidable for a person who thinks through the big picture in advance.

[Ava]

Depending on the practicality of being moved to another location, I might be inclined to point out the manager that I'm a much more efficient worker when I can work in a quieter environment. I think the manager would be more willing to accommodate if it's tied in to a productivity reason instead of just a personal dislike of noise.

I don't work with a loud team of salespeople, but there is music playing in the office about 90% of the time. One of my coworkers claims he doesn't like silence at all and absolutely must have music playing for every single minute he is in the office - often his music and his speakers are practically on my desk. I don't mind music at a reasonable level when I'm working on something sort of mindless, and sometimes I actually really want to listen to it, but if it's something I have to think about I really can't concentrate. At those times it feels like someone is standing next to me screaming in my ear, and it takes me 3-4 times as long to do things as it would if there was silence. I've often wondered if the silence vs noise preference is an I/E thing.

[Okrojsha]

	Originally Posted by Plane Stress To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 2 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
	I can't stand working in that sort of an environment either. Aside from all the noise, I also really hate working while being observed, it makes me really uncomfortable.

Quite true in my case as well. I definitely can't stand the loud noise and I don't like working certain aspects of my job in the full view of others/subordinates (i.e. if I have to do the automatic dictation or chart something, I will isolate myself in the smaller office room, and I absolutely don't care if someone is bothered with it).

[gedreosan]

I also have trouble working in noisy environments and would definitely ask to be moved somewhere quieter if possible. That's probably why I work a graveyard shift.

[Lolie]

Originally Posted by 2obvious To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 2 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.

If there are so many problems of social dynamics at the onset of a new position, your friend isn't really putting a great deal of thought into his career choices. On a more constructive note: he should chalk this up to a lesson learned. In future job searches, he should be more cognizant of the work environment. Ask for a tour of the work area. Ask if it's kind of place where people each lunch together or hit a happy hour after work. Ask if teams tend to communicate via phone calls, IMs, emails, or taps on the shoulder. This is all very avoidable for a person who thinks through the big picture in advance.

While I agree with this in principle, unless someone has a unique and highly valued skill set they will probably be competing against candidates who are happy to fit in with the status quo of a new employer. In the real world, most of us have to work in environments which are less than ideal in some way, and will probably have to compromise our own preferences at some point in our career in order to keep food on the table.

While it's great to have a clear idea of our ideal work situation, if we are too inflexible about what we "need" in order to be a productive employee, we mark ourselves as high maintenance and severely restrict our employment opportunities. As a general rule, it is up to us to adapt to the needs of an employer, not the other way around (something my current training group is having enormous trouble wrapping their heads around).

[ClydeB]

	Originally Posted by Ava To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 2 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
	I don't work with a loud team of salespeople, but there is music playing in the office about 90% of the time. One of my coworkers claims he doesn't like silence at all and absolutely must have music playing for every single minute he is in the office - often his music and his speakers are practically on my desk.

I have had this situation before. My best advice is to give them a dose of their own medicine. Find out what everyone hates music wise. Then start playing it as loud as you can get away with. Same with conversations. Get on the phone with someone or chat with coworkers and start talking about things that people do not want to hear about. The more nauseous inducing the better.

[Lolie]

Originally Posted by Ava To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 2 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.

Depending on the practicality of being moved to another location, I might be inclined to point out the manager that I'm a much more efficient worker when I can work in a quieter environment. I think the manager would be more willing to accommodate if it's tied in to a productivity reason instead of just a personal dislike of noise. I don't work with a loud team of salespeople, but there is music playing in the office about 90% of the time. One of my coworkers claims he doesn't like silence at all and absolutely must have music playing for every single minute he is in the office - often his music and his speakers are practically on my desk. I don't mind music at a reasonable level when I'm working on something sort of mindless, and sometimes I actually really want to listen to it, but if it's something I have to think about I really can't concentrate. At those times it feels like someone is standing next to me screaming in my ear, and it takes me 3-4 times as long to do things as it would if there was silence. I've often wondered if the silence vs noise preference is an I/E thing.

Music in the workplace? Make an inbound call to one of your co-workers and record it with their permission. Take tape to boss, pointing out that the background noise he can hear on the tape is exactly what customers can hear when they are on the phone. For a couple of weeks, document every single time an internal or external customer comments directly or indirectly on the noise level (asking you to repeat information because they didn't hear, asking whether there's a party going on, saying it sounds like it's busy there, etc). Make the noise issue about providing good customer service rather than your personal preferences.

[dabad1]

	Originally Posted by Tenacious B To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 2 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
	Noise canceling headphones - my entire office uses them.

I worked in a large hq building, think cubes and stacks.
We had this wonderful technology built right into the building.

imagine having noise canceling devices built into the ceilings, and yes they worked great, take the noise, invert the signal and feed it back with a slight reverb and delay.

you couldn't hear some one screaming on the phone in the next cube. was truly a great place, the only drawback was when one of them went on the fritz-the highpitch squeal would make me physically ill..

[Lolie]

	Originally Posted by dabad1 To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 2 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
	you couldn't hear some one screaming on the phone in the next cube. was truly a great place, the only drawback was when one of them went on the fritz-the highpitch squeal would make me physically ill..

You've just described acoustic shock, which is one of the major OHS issues in a telephone-based customer service environment.

[Mette]

I really struggle with noisy environments. I am fortunate that I don't need to be chained to my desk and I am free to move around the campus where I work to find a quiet area, or I am even free to go outside with my laptop, weather permitting.

I am fortunate that most of those people who sit around me are often away from their desks, and when they are there they aren't too noisy.

If I was in your shoes, I'd probably let my manager know that I'd prefer to move to a quieter space, if one is available.

[Jonathan Brewer]

I work in a manufacturing environment, or to put it bluntly - a factory. It is extremely noisy due to all the machines operating. We are required to wear ear protection so as to reduce the risk of progressive deafness. Just the same, I have found that I can tolerate extraordinarily well the "equipment", but when the "operators" get to yelling and making a lot of noise, I get annoyed very quickly.

While I would prefer to work in a virtually silent environment, I believe it is the obnoxiousness sound of other individuals that gets under my skin. That said, I attribute it to my anti-social personality. The rest seem to thrive on it.

[Snowdragon]

I can tolerate the noise...up to a point. I found myself in a similar situation a couple of years ago; I was in a room with 40 noisy ESFPs. After almost every night (this was a night class), I ended up with an intense migraine. Being an ENxx, I sucked it up.

Life is one big party for ESFPs.




I would ask to move to a quieter place if I were you.

[dabad1]

	Originally Posted by Snowdragon To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 2 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
	I can tolerate the noise...up to a point. I found myself in a similar situation a couple of years ago; I was in a room with 40 noisy ESFPs. After almost every night (this was a night class), I ended up with an intense migraine. Being an ENxx, I sucked it up. Life is one big party for ESFPs. I would ask to move to a quieter place if I were you.

not a chance. I pay far too much for this place. when they get me down, i simply take the tube(picture tube) to the ceiling. over and over. when I wake up in the middle of the night I do it again..@3 oclock. or 4....


fuck with me and I fuck with you that's just the way it works. they get the message eventually.

home life not work.. apt living sucks ass..