I’ve just started an internship in San Francisco and what has struck me is how quiet the office is. My 9-5 job is in a reasonably noisy office (more a background hum of people rather than loud gossip or music) and in a creative field I was expecting more back-and-forth. Is this normal?
It varies, there are a few of us that are loud talkers/jokers (self included) and when 3 or 4 of us happen to be in the studio the noise level goes up… I also usually get the music going. But there is a high tide low tide. We use project rooms a lot, so when the studio is super busy, most people are in the project rooms.
Every work place is different though.
Our office is next to the prototype shop. There is a belt test fixture running 24H a day, 7 days a week, for 35 million cycles. Other than that its pretty quiet.
I work in an open office environment. No wall on you cube, even the CEO. It can get a bit loud, but that is what an iPod is for. We also have interim meeting spaces all over the office. They range from tables and chairs to restaurant style boots. If you really need to have a quite meeting you grab a conference room. I don’t really have a problem with it. It makes the office feel much more relaxed.
we have a tiny open studio that is astonishingly quiet. The loudest it gets is when someone (like me) is rushing through some Alias work and hammering through marking menus. I like it quiet.
Our Office is quiet like the lake on a sunday morning. [Unless my boss is yelling
at someone on the phone.] We are 4 people in 2 spaces and if we don’t gather
for a joke or brainstorm we tend to work away very quietly and as the city is
stretching out some hundred meters below us there is only an absorbed humm
of cars and people comming through an open window.
listening to soma fm…
mo-i
Loudest thing around here are some preschoolers at lunch break.
Our office is laid out like this.
Boss at the back in his office, then 2IC in front of him, Sales rep, Me, Payroll & accounts girl in front of me, then purchasing girl, then reception/2nd accounts girl at the front. We have a window to the front and back of all of us so we can see who is busy apparently, but I think it’s so the boss can see if we’re on facebook.
The two sales guys and my boss are on the phone or talking a fair bit and we have meetings in my office or theirs when we need to and then people from the factory floor etc coming through so it can be loud at times. Sometimes its so quiet that I feel a bit strange or start to fall asleep. I guess it’s a case of you notice it when you start to run out of things to do, otherwise you get in a zone and don’t notice it much.
I should also note that my boss is a shouter. Pretty much bellows most of the time unless he’s discussing confidential matters.
Been to two corporate jobs, both as quiet as a mouse with occasional tap-tap-tapping on a keyboard. Usually just put my headphones in and zone out.
Amazing how different places can be. Every corporate studio I worked in has been battle of the stereos! … With some ridiculous audio systems.
I’ve interned at a few different companies now and I’ve experienced sort of the gambit of noise. The last place I was at people were freely talking all day, music could be heard now and then since all of the designers cubicles faced into one open area. Where as the company I’m at currently has a ambient noise system installed so you can’t even hear anything in the cube next to you, it pretty much just sounds like a constant A/C system. It’s actually kind of makes me feel alone all day 
Just before I was brought on they decided to move my location. Yes I have a cub 2x the size of anyone else but I am in the middle of sales, and right next to the VP’s office where they have meeting. The worst is one female sales person spends her entire day on the phone and has a some what grating voice.
1st set of head phone Sony $49.99
2nd Set of head phone Bose with noise cancellation $149.00
3rd Set of head phones Monster $205
4th and final set Monster with noise cancellation $325.00
All tried and tested within a 2 week period.
Chevis
Did you go wireless?
If you are asking me Yo, then no i didn’t go wireless. I am still tethered to the PC, which I sometimes forget when wheeling around the cube…
Chevis W.