working with users

Ok, first I have been in your situation regardless of who the others around you are. That is the nature of being a consultant/contractor on site. I once had to sit on a kitchen floor until a space could be made ready in the cube maze that was the office work spaces.

In answer to your question, there are several things:
1. Learn to tune it all out. I am pretty good now that I don't even know when someone comes up to my spot to ask a question. Its called "heads down focus".
2. If you are allowed, bring an ipod or some sort of music that you can use a headset for. This allows you to politly tune out what is around you. But check first to make sure you are allowed. I have worked in some places where it was allowed and others where it is not allowed.
3. Ask your client manager if there is a work area you may use that is quieter. Be prepared to give specific examples of how your work is less efficient due to your seating situation. Yes I had this situation too and the manager happen to understand and rearranged where everyone was sitting to improve communication in the office.

Now here is another thing that you might want to be aware of. Your sitting in a very strategic location. You get to know what the business is doing, where they may need help, etc. You may even be able to make tech suggestions to reduce their workloads or improve efficiency in the office. I have found that sitting with the users I understand what they need from the IT group much better and therefore I can deliver better solutions.

Good Luck and please let us know how it goes.

Even if you do not want to listen to radio, ipod or internet radio :-), just buy a good headset and start using it.

I know many programmers who just use the headset when the noise level increases around them.

you sit near me. I have a volume control problem, but I try real hard to control it, especially at work. My problem is I get excited about what I am doing. I am using conference rooms as much as possible.

In fact, a business user walked up to my desk to discuss something and I sit in the cube farm. So, I asked him if we could go back to his office. This way my volume control issues didn't bother others.

You know sometimes it can't be helped. Some of us are passionate about what we are doing and that is how it comes out. It isn't deliberate and I at least don't mind when I get reminded. In fact I encourage people to signal me if I slip. It helps re-enforce when I am doing it.

Good Luck

i tend to talk softly, i think, it's because i grew up in japan where people don't others to know what they are talking about unless they are talking to them. so yapping loud on the phone with friends/family is unthinkable for me. so this could be just a cultural gap.
at least now i know this is a common issue for a lot of people. i'm not being uptight. :p

I do get annoyed when people just talk loudly. Some realize it, some don't. Nothing can be done about it, I guess we have to put up with them, after all life is little bit of adjustments.

But it is nice to whine about it, now and then. There are folks who sit three or four cubes down, and I can hear them talking.

Some people do not even keep their personal phone conversations low. It makes me wonder if they treat the rest of the people as merely as "inobjects" or are they so oblivious to others?

I understand some people's voices are little louder. Can live with it. But if they do not make any attempt in simple public courtesies, can't help from forming opinions.

Preferable a subject to help you deal with stress or anxiety, or a success or positive thinking title. This may not completely block out 6the noise, but the soothing music will take your mind off a good deal of it. It works for me.

Shooters use headsets that block loud noises. They completely cover the ears and can be purchased to block a wide range of noise levels. They are usually reasonably priced and can be purchased at sporting goods stores. That might be a solution since your request indicates you don't interact with those around you.

I am very sensitive to sound since I am a migraineur. You have multiple options. You can get headsets that block noise, like the type used in manufacturing environments. You can get foam earplugs, like the kind used in manufacturing environments. You can get an iPod. You can shift your work hours. You can learn to ignore it, but that can be difficult, especially when someone walks into your cube and starts yapping. I work with 2 loud people. I keep having to tell one to lower the volume. We joke, "Is so and so in? No, I haven't heard him yet." My IT department is so loud that we have been kicked out of user office areas. We now have out own dedicated space. Between the helpdesk ringing all day and us yelling over the walls at each other the users couldn't get work done. But we manage just fine. I guess we don't mind our own noise.

At my workstation, I don't even have a cubicle for my workspace! I'm in a small room with five desks. There were only four of us mainframe programmers for a long while. Then they put a java programmer at the fifth desk. Well... this guy rocks back and forth on his chair and the squeaking is driving the rest of us crazy! This guy just can't sit still!!! And to make matters worse, he spends more time on the phone taking care of his personal Notary business, than on the job he's there for at our company. I was entertaining the idea of reporting this to his boss, but I think that will happen without my "help".

Bose makes a set for about $300. Sharper Image sells a version for about $70 (traveler's fold-up type) and another for about $150 (standard-size). These use electronics to cancel out background noise so you can use them to virtually eliminate noise or listen to music without background interruptions.

I have a similar situation. Headphones are good unless you can't hear the phone. If I were you, I would try to find a room or unoccupied office. Computer rooms always worked best for me if you have one.

Good Luck.

It might not be possible for you, but how about changing your shift to a later (or earlier) shift. Or, maybe split the shift. Come in early, take off early for lunch and come back late for lunch to finish up after 5. That way the number of hours you work are closer to what you should be working.

I used to have to sit near an obnoxiously loud, foul-mouthed
secretary. Speaker phone on full volume and voice to match.
Radio on all the time and defintely not my taste in music. This
person's laugh is an ear-splitting cackle reminiscent of a
quacking duck being hit by a car. The noise assault could
overpower any iPod, ear plugs or noise cancelling headphones.

The only thing I found that worked was a ten minute recording
of white noise I would listen to with headphones. I couldn't use
it continually because the volume necessary to overpower the
surrounding cacophony would have damaged my hearing. It was
useful however for those times when I just had to concentrate on
something and couldn't otherwise.

Be careful not to destroy you're hearing if you actually try it.
Thankfully for me, I don't sit near this aural volcano any longer.

Get some noise cancelling headphones, or wear industrial grade earmuffs. If that loooks to obvious buy some ear plugs from the hardware shop.
Paul H

Hi there,

I have had the same problem on my former work places and I know it can be very distruptive. Also I had work in a place with more than 10 servers and I can tell you the computers make a lot of humming noise. I solved the problem with the servers's noises by separating the room in two with a sound proof wall between me and the servers. I could not however solve the other people noises.

Magda

I havent had time to read replies on this and although I see some titles of headphones I dont know if my post has already been covered. If so, my apologies.
I know exactly where you are coming from. I have suffered in the past, and now use a combination of solutions which really work:
- turning phone to voicemail for periods where i need to concentrate and then catch up with messages once in a while
- turn my instant messenger to busy or do not disturb at busy periods / periods when i really need to concentrate
- use noise-cancelling earphones (not headphones as these may be seen to be too anti-social).
Noise cancelling earphones (like noise-cancelling head phones) are not cheap but are really worth the investment.
It would be wrong to expect silence all the time, as you may as well not be there, but work from home or something. It isnt unreasonable to have periods of concentration time. My earphone are 'Shure'. Hope this helps.

38% hearing loss does wonders.

...definitely did the trick for me -- I now come in three hours before anyone else so I can get the "focused work" done (and, of course, am also leaving three hours earlier). It was hard at first to adjust to the early-bird hours (I guess it took me a little over a week), but a great side benefit is that the commute both directions now takes only about half as long due to the much lighter traffic at those times. This of course was coordinated and with the agreement of clients and supervisors. Good luck finding a solution.

Boy, do I know what you are talking about. For some reason people who don't work in IT don't have a clue about what it takes to do it, rather, they are totally oblivious to the needs of those of use who need quiet in which to concentrate. They think the whole world is just like them; BLAH, BLAH, BLAH all day long - they even see no problem with shouting at each other across the room. And if you complain, then there must me something wrong with you!

Ever notice how people who play their music the loudest are the ones with the poorest musical tastes as well. The same is true in the office, those who talk the loudest are the ones who have the least interesting things to say.

So it is in the cubicle world. Woe unto us IT folks.

Solution: There ain't one.

leave the job, you are ineffective, if you can't get the job done in a reasonable time...find something else to do, many people try to fight it but the just get frustrated and make everone mad.

Request a the use of a meeting room whenever you need the peace and quiet or for the duration of your stay.
9/10 meeting rooms are quiet, have networking onhand and you tend not to be disturbed.

If anyone questions why you're just working on a complex problem and you need the peace and quiet to help you concentrate.

Both our IT and Engineering peeps do this to great effect.

Better get used to it... or perhaps, you may be missing out on one thing... enjoying your work.

Try to seek yourself, it's more of like, "If you can't beat them, join them" policy. There may be good reasons, strategically, why you are posted on that area. I believe ITs, regardless of specific roles and responsibilities, are usually exposed to certain noises. Think about this, working on a server room full of servers have their own noises and yet somehow we cannot afford to get annoyed with it.

Cheers,

re-walmart/radioshack sound suppressor headset depending on volume price varies hope this helps you.

We sit in cubes and there is this lady whose voice at a normal level is loud and projects throughout the whole office. Everyone can hear her. Now at a bit higher level, which happens about 20 times a day makes you crazy.

Hey man, I feel your pain. I have my own office, however its near my coworkers. Sometimes visitors stopping by to talk drive me nuts because they are talking loud, laughing - even if they look in my office and see i'm on the phone. Most times i have to shut my door. In your situation about all you can do is come in early and get the headache work done and then leave a little early.

I have 2 people who work adjacent to me who like to cough up their phlegm and clear their throats and then they end up choking on it.

I am pulling my iPod out of my bag right after I submit this.

It's great to hear that those noise-cancelling headsets actually work; I have always wondered if there was anything to them. One piece of advice though -- if they are anything like regular foam earplugs, you will have to get used to hearing the very loud sound of your own breathing in your head. I have to wear earplugs for work often, and it took over a month of daily use before I stopped feeling like I was Darth Vader walking around.

So stick it out -- you WILL get used to them! Now I keep them in if I have to work in places like HR and don't want to hear what they are talking about.

I work in a room with other IT support staff and directly across from a loud, sometimes obnoxious lead tech. I sit about a yard stick away from him, and hear his every detail of his personal business and phone call conversations...I find it really difficult to concentrate and focus on training or other projects at my desk due to the verbal noise level. I try the headphone fix but still hear his voice...when I am in the middle of running a CBT or something, he'll get obnoxious and try to include me in one of his off-the-wall conversations with another co-worker, usually the topic being related to a woman's anatomy or something. I've expressed my concern to my manager, but he thinks I should deal with it, coupled with the fact that he thinks the lead walks on water. So I'm stuck here, trying to block out the noise level with headphones and work. UGH! I'm looking for another job :)

Does the sound of clipping nails annoy anybody? It annoys me when I hear people clipping nails in their cubes/at their desks.

I have some occasionally noisy neighbors here in the cubicle farm also. I brought in a nice FM radio, have my favorite stations (classical, jazz) in memories, and use lightweight headphones. when I need it, the music masks the distractions. If that's not enough, there are noise-cancelling headphones on the market, from about $60 on up to about $300 (Bose). Good luck!

I used to work at a place where they played the constant white noise and it was really useful. Unless someone was really loud you didn't have to hear all their phone conversations.
The current place I work is wide open and it sucks. I work off hours just so I can get stuff finished. During the "work day" I do my calls and user interaction nonsense.
One of the managers came over and gave us hassles due to the ambient noise but, of course, he can retreat to his office with a closed door.
Frankly I have had enough of this Dilbert nonsense; I am looking for another job.

You have several options:

A good set of earplugs, the small kind you can easily insert in your ears. This will filter out most of the buzz, yet still let you hear someone talking to you.

A headset, say from an iPod. You have the option of using it with a sound source (iPod, your computer) or not plugging them in. The background buzz will be muted.

I prefer a Sony headset from a CD player. I plug it into the computer I'm using. Whether I listen to music, streaming radio, or leave them off is up to me. But the quiet is worth it.

In the office I worked at we had several people who would "crack" gum constantly thru the day, knowing that it would drive coworkers crazy! Whenever a major problem would arise, the last thing that I needed was to hear crack, crack, crack! I need total silience at times to troubleshoot problems! More than once I walked away until they left for the day.

It became such a distraction that a group of us filed a complaint with the HR Dept. to get it stopped!

sounds like we all agree you need to obtain ear plugs or try a more suitable environment in witch to work in

Brothers and a sister I am used to working in bad conditions :) I was a contractor for five years I worked at just about any kind of company you can think of. And with people who should have stayed on the farm.
Ether you will get used to it or start looking for another job. But most IT people especially desk side support will be in a noisy office with people always looking for you.
That is the kind of job I love, I know I'm a nut!

First of all, for you to be able to handle problems well, you need to be able to define the process on how you handle these problems. Then suggest or present this to your superiors.

To augment your process, you should have an application (web-Based maybe) to handle queing of these problems. Musch like that of a CMS, that way the users will be the one who will give you all the details regarding theri specific problems by inputing all the details in a specific form. Also, this will help you categorize problems as they come thus eliminating the one to one personal discussion.

as many have already posted, a few of us have been there with you. I started working earlier to avoid working later. Used a wireless connect and got the hell out of that room when I needed to. Used the obvious a headset and earplug, an Ipod and anything else that would wash out the white noise in the room.....good luck to you and I hope you receive an opportunity to transfer soon!

When it comes to not being able to concentrate...when it gets too bad or I just need a break from gossip, whose baby threw up what or what the puppy left on the floor; I retreat to the computer room. It not quiet but you can shutout the drone of fans, drives spinning; where with people, even if you are not remotely interested in the conversation...you find your mind drift along with the chatter.

The thing I don't understand is most IT people are "slightly" non social to one degree or another...why do people seem to insist on sharing their moribund life stories? To us...maybe it?s that they enjoy the sound of their own voices, our non communicative nature seems like acceptance?

More to the point, your case is classic consultant/outsource/temporary/guest employee treatment. They don?t know how to treat you, where to put you or how to use your skills. I have seen cases where consultants were hired to fix IT problems at very generous rates, when we show up ? no office/cubicle or even desk, no computer, no access to user ID, internet or sometimes system network. No seat and no prior notice to the affected department of our imminent arrival. Everything from there is usually down hill.

For the first week you are a dog chasing it tail. The solution is in setting up the contract in the first place. What is provide, as a minimum should be addressed upfront. Its harsh, but a reflection on the reality of business today. If it isn?t written down, do not expect it to be offered.

Hi,

I generally listen to my favourite music using earphones. This helps me to work without any hitches.