{"id":3513,"date":"2019-05-20T08:42:31","date_gmt":"2019-05-20T15:42:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/?p=3513"},"modified":"2019-05-20T08:42:31","modified_gmt":"2019-05-20T15:42:31","slug":"open-office-peril-1-loud-talkers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/open-office-peril-1-loud-talkers\/","title":{"rendered":"Open Office Peril #1: Loud Talkers"},"content":{"rendered":"

Survey emphasizes need for IT to double-down on smart office technology to combat distractions<\/em><\/h2>\n

Space shuttle launches, gunfire, and Sam in Sales are among the loudest sounds humans can be exposed to. We all have those coworkers who speak loud enough to wake the dead. Though they might not do lasting damage to our eardrums, they are a huge threat to workplace productivity, especially in the open office.<\/p>\n

Our new survey<\/a>, commissioned in partnership with Future Workplace, asked 5,151 multigenerational office workers around the world for their perspective on the open office. One result clearly stood out: nothing annoys open office workers more than other office workers.<\/p>\n

Chief Office Culprit: Loud Conversations\u00a0<\/strong><\/h2>\n

You know the saying: you can\u2019t choose your family, but you can choose your friends. Well, you can\u2019t choose your coworkers, either, and they ultimately are the biggest distraction in the open office. It\u2019s not the copy machine or the office dog that tops the list of biggest noise offenders, but the coworkers talking loudly on phone calls that consistently distracts 76% of our survey respondents.<\/p>\n

It makes sense. Research shows it\u2019s not noise volume that distracts us the most but speech intelligibility. The more you understand the words being said, the more distracted you\u2019ll become.<\/p>\n

Shouldn\u2019t people report loud talkers to the boss or HR? Maybe not\u2014this is a place where IT can play a critical role in improving productivity.<\/p>\n

IT Can Build the Escape Plan
\n<\/strong><\/h2>\n

T has a clear role because they have some of the most effective tools to create safe havens for workers trying to focus.\u00a0By selecting the right headsets, handsets, and microphones it\u2019s easy to create an oasis of calm amidst the noise.<\/p>\n

So what are the options available?\u00a0Can wearables and peripherals really provide an answer?<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s break it down: why do people talk so loudly on telephone and video calls? It\u2019s often because of shortcomings in their technology. Consider these scenarios:<\/p>\n

Scenario 1: You can\u2019t hear them (and vice versa)<\/em><\/h3>\n

If you\u2019re having a hard time hearing the other end, you naturally talk louder, too.\u00a0Tinny speakers and inexpensive earbuds don\u2019t provide you with the same audio integrity as Poly headsets and speakerphones. The result is choppy conversations, errors, and repeats\u2014and the natural reflex to make your voice louder to compensate.<\/p>\n

Scenario 2: You can\u2019t hear yourself<\/em><\/h3>\n

Imagine you\u2019re wearing a headset designed to block external noise so you can enjoy your music playlist. That same headset blocks you from hearing your own voice when you speak. The result: your music sounds great but you\u2019re now a loud talker when you\u2019re on a call. Poly\u2019s enterprise-grade headsets are engineered to distinguish between voice, music, and external noises, and offer side tone<\/a> that lets you hear enough of your own voice to keep you from being \u201cthat guy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Scenario 3: You don\u2019t trust the technology<\/em><\/h3>\n

Loud voices can project right through the walls of conference rooms. A door is no match for coworkers shouting to ensure they\u2019re heard when the conference phone or microphone isn\u2019t directly next to them. The solution is 360-degree microphones. Whether on the table<\/a>, hung from the ceiling<\/a>, or built directly into an all-in-one system<\/a>, Poly microphones have beam-forming arrays that pick up only the sounds that should be heard. When people understand they can be heard clearly regardless of where they are in the room, they\u2019ll start using their \u201cinside\u201d voices.<\/p>\n

It seems that employees have already cracked the code\u2014more than half (56%) of workers in our survey reported that they want better technology to be more productive. IT in workplaces everywhere have been busy ushering in new software and converting to cloud computing. Isn\u2019t it time to put just as much stock into the hardware that employees are using?\u00a0Audio innovations\u2014yes, peripherals\u2014are the first line of defense against those distractions that are killing productivity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Survey emphasizes need for IT to double-down on smart office […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":3514,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1387,525,536],"tags":[1426,8,1427,12,610],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3513"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3513"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3513\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3514"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3513"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3513"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3513"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}