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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

SteveC's picture

White noise?

Many years ago (about thirty!) my dad occasionally visited what was then the largest open plan office in Europe. He told me that they used a white noise generator to cut down on the disturbance caused by the chatter, telephones and so on. You didn' realise it was on until 6.00 when it was switched off -- the place then became very quiet.

I've never heard of this technique being used since. Anyone else ever come across it? Does it work?

Steve

 
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