Noise in the office environment

[TiG]

I've just completed a major shift in our office of servers, build areas etc. So now my desk and the whole office environment is blissfully silent, but what i've realised is that i've been listening to the dull buzz of server fans, and various other computer related hardware for so long that i've filtered out the background noise.

But its so quiet in here now that i can't help but notice any noise at all, even the noise of me tapping on the keys at the moment.

I know its not for everyone, but do you prefer quiet or noise for working environments?

TiG

[Howard]

I sit next to our server room and I get a dull drone and it doesn't bother me. What does irritate me is the constant use of the back door, and people generally being noisy/disturbing me when they walk through

Deathly silence, when sitting in an open plan office with other people would do my head in, as I'm quite self conscious

[burble]

I don't concentrate well in complete silence so I've nearly always got music playing when I'm working.

The noise from servers does my head in though. I've got a couple of IBM i5's sitting in the corner of my office until the rack rails arrive and the sound of them isn't nice.

[tiggerai]

People having in depth conversations when I'm trying to develop is one of my bugbears, does my head in!

Earphones on... gets rid of most annoying sounds!

[MadduckUK]

yep constant noises are fine.. its intermittent stuff like someone shouting outside / farting that annoys

[Stringent]

I used to work where the servers are, then we hijacked the room next door. When there was a power cut, I couldn't believe how noisy it was. I used to come home with a dull headache most days because of the noise. We have 8 servers, 9 PC's about 6 switches, UPS ... it all mounts up!

My PC is the noisiest though, despite having supposedly 'quiet' fans in. Oh and then there is the slight noise from the fish tank filter.

[Lucio]

Our server's have been getting noiser and noiser, I think it's the UPS interfering with the automatic fan speed adjustment because just after a power cut, they came back on dead quite and now have gotten noiser again...


Still, I work as part of a sales team ( as well as all the IT stuff...) and therefore my office is always really really noisy!

[99Flake]

I sit next to the server room (65 odd servers plus UPS) and the network room (cisco catalyst core) and when the doors are shut there is a constant drone but I have the radio on so it is not really noticed, plus I have got used to it.

Go into either room and come back out and it feels deathly silent. Had a power cut a while back and it was really odd how quiet it was.

Personally I need music on at work, would go mad otherwise.