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Working in an overcrowded cubicle office space

Hello all,

I work within a large multinational institution. Several of our divisions have now all moved into one large open office space in a series of cubicles. My question is:

Can anyone offer any tips to encourage staff to keep their noise levels down and appreciate people around them. Everyone will be in this area by Monday and I am pre-empting a chaotic mess, particularly since we have people from more than a dozen cultures packed in together.

Just wondering if any one has any best practices for dealing with this? I've got some ideas but wondered if there were any others before I recommend them to the incoming swarm??

Cheers,

Dool

randellt's picture

I work on a floor...

I work on a floor of about 300 people, all technology types. Talking on phones, chatting over cube walls, shouting across the room, etc. If there are only a few noise-makers you can band together and provide feedback to get them to lower the volume. That has worked for me in the past. In my current case, everyone is "normal" so the problem is multiplicative and the only solution I have found is some music to drown out the din or taking my laptop to a conference room for some quiet time.

I agree that some humorous do not disturb signs get the point across. Take a look at http://www.stclaire.com/go/industrial_signage/sb2/html for a fun sign generator.

The ones I use are "Quiet please. I'm on the phone." and "Caution. Deep thinking in progress."

 
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