by Nick
Monday, May 07, 2007 4:32 AM
The floor where I sit at work is shared between developers, and call center personnel. In an effort to drown out the call center from the developers, and likewise drown out the developers to the call center folks, they recently installed white noise generators in the ceiling. Today it sounds like they turned up the volume.
It's driving me insane! It's like having a television over your head where you only hear the snow coming through because the cable is out. I'd rather listen to the call center people (which I can still actually hear somewhat). They've simply replaced one type of noise with another. Except this noise is much more distracting, and it feels like its burrowing deep into my subconscious.
I can't work. I can't concentrate. I'm getting a headache. I've already yelled at someone this morning.
I think I've finally discovered what causes people to go postal at work.
Update: I've just been informed that the volume increasing is by design, and that they're going to bump it up again next week. They're supposedly doing this incrementally so that we get used to it gradually. I already can't work... I can't imagine how much worse it will be next week.
I was feeling kind of depressed at work last week (when the volume was lower), and couldn't put my finger on it. I feel worse today... and this has to be the reason. I'm also definitely more on edge and moody too. I am seriously kicking myself for forgetting my MP3 player. But you know, sometimes when I work, music can be distracting. But now my choices are going to be distracting music, or painful white noise. What kind of choice is that? Why would a company purposefully do this to it's employees?!
Update II: After a round of complaints by everyone, they've turned the volume back down to the same level as it was last week. So now the headache is much more mild, and at least I can concentrate again. Of course, I can still hear the call center folks on the other side of the hall, which begs the question... why bother with the white noise at all? If the volume has to be at annoyingly high levels to drown out the call center, then what's the point?
