The expert stated a decrease in concentration due to noise in open offices

The lack of partitions and sound insulation in open offices impairs the performance of tasks that require concentration and accelerates employee fatigue. This was announced on June 5 by Nikita Dikopoltsev, the founder of the auditory centers, audiologist Nikita Dikopoltsev.

"The main problem of open spaces is not even the steady hum of ventilation or air conditioners, but fragments of colleagues' speech. Speech perception is a priority for the human auditory system. We may not pay attention to some monotonous noise, but the brain is not able to completely ignore articulate sounds. Japanese researchers from Yamaguchi University have found that the presence of meaningful speech in the background noise causes a suppression of cortical activity in a working person," Dikopoltsev explained in an interview with Gazeta.Ru».

The audiologist explained that the brain automatically tries to recognize the meaning of a phrase or determine whether a conversation refers to it, which distracts the RAM from work. A person who spends 5-6 hours in an open office without acoustic comfort experiences a state similar to sensory overload. Fatigue accumulates not from physical work, but from the constant strain on the auditory analyzer, and by the end of the day, the ability to analyze information and make decisions decreases.

It is clarified that to reduce the harmful effect, experts recommend acoustic zoning or the use of noise—canceling headphones or background sound, but the volume should not exceed 70-75 dB, and continuous use - more than two hours, so as not to overload the hearing system.

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Ekaterina Catalina, a business psychologist and economist, said on June 2 that burnout is often disguised as laziness and loss of discipline. According to the expert, not every unwillingness to work indicates a weak will. However, if procrastination becomes constant, it becomes difficult even to arrive at the office, and concentration disappears at the beginning of the day, this may be a sign of overload or burnout.