Quiet UK

Tag: health

  • How to find quiet in an open plan office

    How to find quiet in an open plan office

    Buzz, bang, beep, cackle, holler, door screeching slowly closed. These are just some of the noises that welcome those of us that work in open plan offices. After several years of suffering in my own open-plan-noise-hell I’ve discovered there are plenty of things you can do to create quiet in even the most gossip-ridden, Tuesday-fire-alarm-testing, two-hour-speaker-phone-meeting office environment.

    Several years ago, I started working in my first open plan office. I wasn’t a big fan, but we had big windows looking out on to trees and green fields and large desks where we could create our own space. Then the company decided to fit more and more people into the same tiny area. Suddenly we went from two people on a desk to three, then four. I went from having several feet between me and my colleague to practically sitting on each other’s laps. It didn’t help that the intern who sat next to me had no concept of personal space, or indeed a volume button.

    As the noise went up, my stress levels went up and my productivity went down. Open plan offices done properly can improve collaboration, personal connections and create opportunities for people from different departments to mix and perhaps come up with the next big idea. However, they can still be loud and distracting and the background noise can reduce cognitive ability leading to reduced productivity.

    In my case they can also induce a slight murderous rage when the man-spreading senior manager next to me used to take hour long calls at his desk and clearly had no concept of how phones worked or he wouldn’t have been shouting down the receiver.

    But don’t worry there are plenty of ways to reduce the amount of noise in these notorious sound generating environments?

    What can you do to reduce noise levels in open plan offices?

    A lot of the noise in your office is probably out of your control, but here are a few things that can help create some quiet space for you:

    • Wear standard or noise cancelling earphones. This way you can listen to the sounds you want to. Just make sure they’re not turned up too loud, so you don’t contribute to the problem.
    • Lead by example
      • turn off unnecessary (all in my opinion) notifications on digital devices
      • have conversations away from other people’s desks
      • don’t talk over desks – it’s tempting if you have desk dividers to pop your head over and have a quick catch up with a colleague, but you won’t be the only people hearing the conversation.
    • Explore your office – find the quiet spaces that others haven’t discovered. I found so many ‘secret’ cubbyholes where I could find space and quiet when I needed it. Tip: the canteen outside of peak times can be an unlikely haven.
    • Don’t let things get really bad. Talk to your manager. A simple desk move might solve the problem. Don’t let things build up and bubble over. Address them before they have a negative impact on your health and mental wellbeing. Your manager might not even realise there is a problem. Go to them with some solutions and see how you can solve the problem together.
    • A personal one. At Christmas don’t bring in a musical clock that every hour places a tinny, high-pitched ‘version’ of Jingle Bells. You know who are, Lou!

    Office managers these ones are for you:

    • Create quiet spaces where people can focus on their work away from distractions.
    • Conversely you could create a noisy area – somewhere for huddles, lunch breaks, team training sessions to take place – just make sure it’s not next to the quiet space.
    • Assign quiet times – perhaps post lunch when everyone is in a bit of a lull anyway.
    • Introduce a visual key system so people can show if they are willing to be interrupted. We placed coloured cards on the top of our screens – green for yes, I’m free and happy to speak and red for I’m focussing on a task and do not want to be interrupted. Or there’s the earbud code – one in for happy to be spoken to, two in for leave me alone.
    • Encourage staff to work from home. Yes, I know many companies are encouraging/ forcing workers back to our offices but one or two days a week at home can make a massive difference to the quality of life and productivity of an employee who prefers it quiet.
    • No speakerphone conversations in the office – hearing one voice is bad enough!
    • And leading on from this – no video calls at desks. Encourage everyone to treat video calls as a meeting and go to a designated meeting space.
    • Move noise generating equipment away from desks and quiet areas. It might be a noisy machine, or it could be people congregating and chatting at the printer.
    • Finally, listen to colleagues who say they are struggling with noise. Work together to see how things can change. They might not be the only ones who are having a bad time. Simple changes can make a world of difference to their health and mental wellbeing and your business productivity.

    There are also myriad ways of reducing the sound by, for example, changing the layout, adding acoustic panels and planting living walls. These maybe suitable for your business or not but a quick google brings up loads of options in varying price ranges.

    I’d love to know how other people cope with open plan offices – from both a personal and business perspective. Keeping everyone happy is not easy but as we spend so much of our time at work, we need to learn compassion and respect for our colleagues. I don’t want to silence the loud voices, but equally they shouldn’t be the only voices heard.

  • What does tinnitus sound like?

    What does tinnitus sound like?

    EEEEEEEeeeeeeeeeEEEeeeeeeeeeeEEEEEEEEEeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee. Annoying right? Welcome to the world of my tinnitus.

    But surely all tinnitus is the same? A ringing sound in the ears. Yes, I thought the same when I was first diagnosed — I assumed that I heard what everyone with tinnitus heard.

    Hang on a minute, what is tinnitus?

    Tinnitus is a sound that is perceived in the ear or the head that has no external source. But the sound is very real to the person with tinnitus. The word tinnitus comes from the Latin for ringing.

    Some people have a fleeting experience with tinnitus, for others, it is a lifelong companion. I’ve had tinnitus since 2016.

    Hearing sounds that no one else can, sounds interesting!

    Tinnitus is not a disease or illness. It is not a mental health condition. Tinnitus has a range of triggers including ear infection, exposure to loud noise, stress and changes to your health and wellbeing. Mine was caused by persistent, high levels of stress throughout 2016 (it was such a crappy year!).

    There has also been a lot of media about COVID-19 and tinnitus. This is something I may revisit once more research has been done. But it’s important to note that tinnitus can appear and peak at times of stress (mine had a spectacular increase during the first few months of lockdown).

    Unfortunately, despite 30% of people experiencing tinnitus at some point in their lives, it is underfunded when it comes to research.

    So what do you hear?

    I hear the annoying list of EEEEEs above — fairly monotone, with the ‘sound’ level increasing during increased levels of stress and anxiety. In fact, my tinnitus often lets me know I’m stressed before I realise I need to put on Headspace. In that way, it can be quite useful, in comparison to when it’s keeping me awake at 3am, seemingly just for the fun of it.

    But you may hear something very different. I recently attended a tinnitus support group where one of the participants had only been diagnosed a couple of months before. Her tinnitus was a whooshing sound that she felt was taking over her head and her life. She was visibly distraught and wanted to know when it would stop. Unfortunately, the answer to that is impossible to know, other than for most people, tinnitus — or your perception of it can improve over time. Her description of her tinnitus was so different to mine — but I recognised in her the stress I’d felt when first diagnosed.

    Tinnitus sounds can include ringing, buzzing, humming, whooshing, hearing your heartbeat (pulsatile tinnitus) or even music (musical tinnitus). A family member hears an undulating humming sound — there seems to be no reason behind the type of sound you hear.

    You may have noticed that I’ve used the word ‘sound’ rather than ‘noise’ when talking about what I perceive. Noise is described as a sound that is unwanted (to me this includes Jazz, leafblowers and that annoying beep my washing machine makes when it’s finished its cycle). And yes, tinnitus isn’t the easiest thing to live with. But I find using ‘sound’ to describe it takes away the need to fight against it.

    I can’t promise you’ll make friends with your tinnitus but anything you can do to encourage acceptance will go a long way to reducing its impact on your life.

    Find support

    If you are hearing or start to hear sounds in your ears or head please speak to your doctor or healthcare professional. Very rarely tinnitus can be a sign of something that will need further investigation. They may also be able to refer you to a hearing therapist (I recommend giving this a go — my therapist has been wonderfully supportive and doesn’t take any shit from me about not doing the exercises).

    You can also get in touch with the British Tinnitus Association or American Tinnitus Association — both of whom have excellent support networks.

  • Simple solutions for a quieter life

    Simple solutions for a quieter life

    Back in the day when I used to commute to work the simple task of getting the train used to raise my stress levels to breaking point. Five days a week I’d arrive at the station five minutes before my train, then wait an extra ten minutes because the train was always delayed. I’d then jostle with my fellow commuters trying to claim a spare foot of space as my own. The journey itself was 12 minutes, except on days when we had to stop because of branches, cows or swans on the track (yes, all three of those we’re given as reasons for delays). And by the time I reached work, I was a jittery mess of anxiety and hatred towards all humanity.

    Yes, the delays were frustrating, paying for a seat and not being able to get one was a tad irritating, but the thing that got to me most was the noise. From the minute the carriage doors clunked shut there was constant noise. The train manager making unintelligible announcements over the PA. The squeals, bangs and squeaks of under-invested in rolling stock. The new phenomena of people playing music or watching movies without headphones — it was bad enough having loud, tinny music leach from headphones, but this new antisocial habit is enough to make me shove their devices into some very dark holes. And who can forget the very important man (yes, always a man) who doesn’t understand how a phone works and shouts so loudly into the receiver that the whole carriage knows just how important it is that Steve gets the contract to Maggie by close of play.

    In the end, I started driving to work — yes, I know this is not the sustainable option, but honestly, I was so far past the end of my tether that I was liable to headbutt the next very important man I came across. My commute time went from 12 minutes to 45 minutes, but those 45 minutes were quiet. Before this, I was ready to quit my job but this little change allowed me to hang on until I was ready to go freelance.

    In an increasingly loud world, opportunities for quiet seem to be diminishing. From the minute we wake up to the beep beep beep of our alarms to the time we are lulled to sleep by the near-constant rumble of traffic and aeroplanes noise is always there. And it’s killing us.

    So how can you find the quiet space you need?

    Explore your local community

    Even in the busiest of city, you can find quiet nooks and crannies. Sometimes they are obvious places like large, tree-filled parks but there are also plenty of hidden spaces waiting to be discovered. One of my favourite places is churches. I’m not religious but the enforced quiet of a religious building can be a blessing. But you need to avoid the fancy ones, the ones that tourist flock to.

    For example, Liverpool has two cathedrals. The first, and oldest is the appropriately named Liverpool Cathedral. An imposing building full of stained glass, stone carvings and tourists. The other, Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral, is a modern building with a derogatory nickname due to its, shall we say, distinctive architecture. And because of this fewer people visit making it a much calmer space. This building is a wonderful space to escape the rumble of traffic and bustle of the nearby shopping centre. (If you’re not religious please be aware of the religious practices in the building and act appropriately).

    Turn everything off

    Nice and simple this one. Take off your headphones. Turn off the TV, phone and tablet. If you are constantly listening to your devices you won’t know when there is quiet around you.

    Yes, they block out unwanted noise, but you are just substituting one noise for another. Turn them off and listen. Let your ears lead you towards the quiet they crave.

    Change your schedule

    A few years ago I worked in an open-plan office. Well, that was its own special kind of hell. No Phil, making hour-long calls on speakerphone is not sodding appropriate. Other than building your own fort out of reams of printer paper and broken A4 binders there’s not a lot you can do to change the physical space. But what if you changed when you are in the space?

    My old company allowed flexi-time — as long as we were in the building for the core hours we could start as early as 7am and finish as late as 8pm. I was an early bird and would arrive outside the office at 6.59am and leave just as the clock struck 3pm. This worked because the rest of my team were night owls who would rock up sometime between 9.30 and 10.00. Leaving me with up to three delightful hours of quiet every day.

    Depending on your company this might take a bit of negotiating, but it’s worth a try — even half an hour of quiet a day could make a difference.

    Avoid traffic

    Venice and Amsterdam are major European tourist sites, filled with people, cafes and restaurants. But they are both missing one thing — cars. Thanks to their unique landscape and, in the case of Amsterdam, their attitude towards cars, they are filled with the hubbub of people, but they lack the roar of motorised transport.

    Some towns and cities are finding ways to reduce our reliance on cars but others are still stuck in a car is King mindset. This gives you another reason to explore your neighbourhood or perhaps try a different walking route to work.

    If I walk the most direct route from my house into town I end up walking alongside a major road — filled with all the accompanying air and noise pollution. But if I take a diagonal route, it adds five minutes, but it avoids the main road and takes me along a tree-lined path that skirts a brook with all its accompanying bird song and babbling. For the sake of five minutes, I know which my lungs and ears prefer.

    I hope these simple ideas will help you to find some quiet space. I’d love to hear if you have any other ideas for finding a bit of hush in our increasingly noisy world.

  • Swimming in silence

    Swimming in silence

    If you search ‘tinnitus swimming’ all the results talk about the negatives – swimmer’s ear being the main one, and how to prevent it. But for now, let’s take a look at the positives.

    My tinnitus is a barometer for my stress and anxiety levels. At the moment, after a brush with Covid, a nasty horsefly bite and some stressful deadlines at work my T is at peak attention-seeking. Swimming is my ultimate relaxant – although it has to be outdoors, I find indoor pools noisy and a bit grim (think used plasters floating by at eye level!). And it has to be skins, no neoprene here, although a bobble hat is essential and the absolute in outdoor swimming chic

    Outdoor swimming can also be a massive challenge. When I first started outdoor swimming in 2019, I was not a confident swimmer. The thought of not being able to put my feet down or the extremes of swimming in the winter took me so far out of my comfort zone, I’m not sure how I ever got back in the water, let alone fell in love with it. But fall in love I did, to the point I now swim in an old quarry that is 36 metres deep, with a 6m drop as soon as you kick off – no chance of putting my feet down. And this was the beginning of ‘silencing’ my tinnitus because the challenges meant I had something else to focus on.

    Now I find outdoor swimming the most relaxing thing in the world. The moment I step into the water, everything else in the world disappears. My mind is either silenced and I just bob along, chatting with the cormorants, great crested grebes and kingfishers, or it awakens my creativity – many stories have been conceived and plotted in the silky ripples of a lake. With my stressors removed, my tinnitus no longer has a place in my consciousness.

    Swimming alternatives

    BUt what happens when I can’t go for a swim? Instead, I have cold showers, apologies to my neighbours who have to put up with the regular shrieks, followed by giggles and laughter. This has something of a dampening effect, but it is shorter-lived than the effects of swimming.

    Go back to 2016 when my tinnitus started and I never would have said that swimming would be my go-to thing for silencing the ringing. And I guess that’s kind of the point. You don’t know if something’s going to work for you until you try it. So, please try not let tinnitus get you down. Meditation is often cited as something to try, but it might not work for you – it doesn’t work for me. But what about knitting, or gardening or mountain climbing? I find the best way to silence my T is to do an activity where my brain has to concentrate, so it doesn’t have time to become obsessed with the ringing, music or humming.

    I’d love to know what works (or doesn’t work) for you. Perhaps something you never expected to work has become your go-to way of distracting your brain. Feel free to share in the comments below.

    Further info

    If you are interested in outdoor/ wild/ cold water swimming please check out Outdoor Swimmer’s guide to swimming safely.

    If you need help or support with your tinnitus the British Tinnitus Association support line is available Mon-Fri 9-5 on 0800 018 0527. If you feel like you can’t cope and need help outside of these times the Samaritans are available 24/7 on 116 123.

    This post was originally posted on Quest for Quiet (10 Feb 2021).

  • “Stop chewing so loudly” – living with Misophonia

    “Stop chewing so loudly” – living with Misophonia

    “Crunch, crunch, munch.”
    Deep breathe in. It’s not their fault they’re eating like a monkey that hasn’t been fed for a week.
    “Crunch, crunch, MUNCH.”
    Oh, for f*ck’s sake will you just shut up!!!

    Welcome to the world of misophonia. Miso-what-now? Misophonia, or Selective Sound Sensitivity, is a strong emotional reaction to sound, more specifically, a type of sound. And the type of sound and the reaction can be different for different people. For me, other people chewing triggers rage, a lot of rage, but I rarely act on it, other than the odd tut; I am British after all!

    Sounds that can trigger someone with misophonia are normally manmade, are something voluntary (think chewing loudly not farting), and to me, they are often prolonged or reoccurring noises (such as sniffing or regularly clearing your throat). Hearing these sounds wakes up your fight or flight response and your body reacts, either through rage, disgust or anxiety. I’m mainly a rage or disgust person – that probably says a lot about me as a person!

    Sounds that trigger a response from me include (but are not limited to):

    • Chewing (the big one for me)
    • Someone clearing phlegm from their throat
    • Rustling crisp packets (or similar packaging)
    • Jingling coins in your pocket – Mum I’m looking at you!

    There’s very little research into the causes or prevalence of misophonia. According to the American Tinnitus Association, 4-5% of people with tinnitus experience some form of misophonia. A recent study suggested that as many as 49.1% of the population suffer from some form of the condition. That’s almost half the planet getting annoyed at the other half for eating or sniffing!

    Speak to those close to you

    So, if you get angry, disgusted or anxious at certain sounds what can you do about it?

    Rather than tutting, or worse, it really does help to speak to those around you. Explain that this reaction is no one’s fault, it is just a reaction. Now when my husband is eating near me he will put on some music or the tv, something that masks the sound he is making.

    It can be a bit more difficult when you are out and about. I’ve never turned to the person chomping and slurping next to me on the train and said, “Do you mind not doing that, I find it disgusting.” It would be an interesting experiment though.

    My solutions to this are:

    • Don’t sit there in silent rage, move away from the source of the noise if you can.
    • Invest in noise-cancelling headphones – I always thought these were a bit of a con until I was given a pair of Bose QuietComfort 35 and they changed my world for the better.

    It’s also worth a chat with your GP if you find that your misophonia is affecting your life. Be aware that many health professionals probably haven’t heard of misophonia, but they should still be able to direct you to your local audiology department or hearing therapist.

    For more on misophonia check out the British Tinnitus Association website.