Every office is looking to boost productivity. While there are a whole host of tips and tricks for kicking the afternoon lull, boosting morale and energy, and throwing employee out-put into high gear, sometimes the simplest solutions are the most effective.

Here are five tips that can boost your office productivity – and do it immediately.

1. Set Break Times in Stone

As the first tip, this one seems the most contradictory – taking breaks means time away from projects, cutting into productivity, right? The exact opposite is actually true. The human mind wasn’t designed to operate like a machine, especially not in our early days as a species, so when it finds itself stuck with routine tasks or a huge flow of work, it begins to regress into shut-down mode. This saves energy for that surprise tiger you might see when you go out hunting and gathering later. So the shorter breaks are and the more they’re skipped, the more employees’ minds will start powering down and losing focus on their projects, in fact cutting into productivity.

2. Cut the Fluff

The greatest key to productivity is focus: an employee’s ability to focus on a project, and management’s ability to focus the tasks they’re assigning to their workers. Often times businesses are strict on work hours, meetings, and the freedom an employee has on a project – with the aim to make all progress clear and tracked. However, to truly encourage productivity, being flexible is the key. This means avoiding meetings when a simple email would suffice to get the information across, being less strict with an employee’s working hours and their ability to work from home, and especially changing the level of creativity allowed within the working force. It’s important to evaluate even the longest of working traditions and think to yourself “does this cut into productivity?” Even if that weekly meeting has been set in stone for years, it may be time to put it away in favor of a more flexible and focused approach.

3. Make it Personal

When the word “productivity” comes around, it’s usually associated with a bunch of numbers and graphs, as if workers are Terminator-style robots with all the programmable features and none of the awesome superpowers. However, that’s just not the case. People work harder and produce better results when they’re personally motivated to see something accomplished, and by feeding this personalized drive, you’ll find employees willing to go the extra mile and focusing harder during work hours. Make them a part of the project, and give them a reason to actually care.

4. Get Collaborative

They say two heads are better than one, and after working on something for a long time, it’s easy to get tunnel vision on the entire project. Either the final result won’t be as great as you hoped, or you’ll end up lagging behind while trying to rethink the entire process. By encouraging employees to reach out, you can cut through the fog and get tasks handled much more efficiently, not just boosting productivity, but improving the quality you deliver.

• Actually Work Together

Four hands are also better than two – by working with others on big tasks and on small, work can be divided and conquered faster than before. Even better than that, by having several people on the job, you’re benefitting from several different specialties and strengths. When you find yourself loathing a certain part of a project, you can pass this off to someone who thrives in that area, allowing you to concentrate on something you’re good at – and most importantly, something that doesn’t make you want to stab your eye out. This boosts your mood and allows you to work with more focus.

5. Keep Things Organized

It may seem obvious that keeping things organized leads to productivity, but most people look past the real value it has to offer. If you’re a more creative but scatterbrained kind of worker, you’ll be lost and confused in the clutter of your desk or schedule, not only missing vital deadlines, but even focusing on the wrong projects. For more on-point workers, your drive to get things organized last minute can lead to valuable time being wasted, bleeding into your productivity levels.

• Get a To-Do List.

We all have a list of things we want to accomplish, but the means of actually doing so can quickly escape us when the internet and all its sweet, understanding cat videos call to us. To turn this tip into an actual game plan, you have to chart out your daily tasks in detail. Organize them based on importance, so that if you miss any, at least the important things are covered. Organize them based on time, because the more brain-intensive tasks might feel like waterboarding during the afternoon lull. And finally, base them on your level of interest – if you absolutely hate a project, handle it first, and then reward yourself with some email-writing; or on the flipside, try the email-writing first to build up the courage to keep going.

• Keep Your Workspace Tidy.

They say geniuses have the messiest desks – however, their skill lies not with their mind but with their ability to not get distracted by the clutter. The rest of us aren’t so lucky; a messy desk will make it difficult to find the tools and objects you need to take on work, and the few minutes spent hunting them down will quickly find you lagging behind in productivity. In addition to this, while most wars are fought and won in the situation room, your battle of getting-things-done is mostly fought in your mind. A cluttered workspace will make you feel cluttered and bogged down, while a tidy area boosts motivation to get stuff accomplished.

By including these tips and tricks in the way you approach the office, you can create a working environment that is focused on just that – working at its full potential.

With the modern age making entrepreneurship in fashion and greater profits for existing businesses more attainable, a problem quickly arises: office space. Privacy can lead to focus for employees, which can lead to greater productivity and finally greater results, and that calls for a cubicle that helps this concentration. However, investing in so many cubicles can quickly feel like shooting yourself in the foot – saving money and making profits is the name of the game, right?

With cubicle panel extenders, you can get the best of both worlds: a customized cubicle that fits your needs and size – and more importantly – one that fits your price tag. Here are three ways that these panel extenders can actually save you money in the long-run and in the short-run, making them the best choice for a new business or an already roaring company:

1. Save Money By Saving Time

Every business knows that saving money isn’t just about cutting on prices and finding deals – it’s about conserving the time and effort your employees are spending on tasks. This applies to ensuring productivity is kept up and small delays don’t lead to a missed deadline. Cubicle panel extenders offer this same advantage by offering privacy and focus to your employees, allowing them to focus on their work and not the distraction of a water-cooler conversation or nearby clients conversing on a separate project. The savings don’t just stop there – the very way they’re built is designed to save time, and inherently, save you money.

• Less Time Spent on Installation

Whether you’re a handyman who can install the most difficult of objects in a matter of seconds, or you’re the less crafty type who struggles with installing a light bulb, the cubicle panel extenders are designed with ease and efficiency in mind. If you’re remodeling your office space and find privacy as a key to success, you can find yourself in a jam for time with traditional cubicles that can take as much as a day to put in place. However, the extenders are as simple as a few moments of your time, an Allen wrench, and a handful of screws, allowing you to transform your office without cutting into your deadlines.

• Less Time Spent Readjusting

Success is about innovation, and that may mean redesigning your office space again in the near future. With normal cubicles, you’d find yourself in the same bind all over again, with the need to disassemble, move, and reassemble the spaces over the course of a day – if not many days. These extenders offer the same speed the first time as they do in the last, and readjusting the angle or moving them entirely can be done in a matter of minutes, saving you valuable time and money with it.

2. Save Money By Saving Space

When success comes knocking at your door, it comes with a handful of problems to join it. As your business expands, this means hiring more employees and purchasing more equipment to handle the workload, and while your company may be growing, it doesn’t mean your office building is. To avoid tight workspaces that result in more headaches and frustration than productivity, arranging cubicles in the most economical and efficiency way is the answer. The more people you can fit in a room, the less rent you’ll pay on a larger building, and the more productivity you can achieve through collaboration. Cubicle panel extenders it all in one.

• More Compact and Flexible

Traditional cubicles keep to a very strict size and level of flexibility, making your dreams of a pillow-fort style office space hard to come by. Cubicle panel extenders, on the flipside, offer a level of flexibility and creativity, allowing you to extend them as far as you’d like or angle them in certain directions to keep from irritating your co-workers in tight spaces. With their compact size making it easy to match up several to achieve a certain angle or only reach so far, you can create the cubicle space you want in a shape that suits the greater good of the office.

3. Save Money By Spending Less

Of course the greatest money-saving advantage is the simplest – cubicle panel extenders can literally save you money. This is accomplished not only by their more reasonable price range and compact size, making it possible to buy fewer to suit your needs, but in greater ways.

• They Come with Everything You Need

Some cubicle walls require an array of different tools and pieces to come together, with special adjusters, drills, and even unique screws stacking on the price tag in addition to its expected cost. Cubicle panel extenders are made for the future, with efficiency and ease in mind, and they accomplish this by coming entirely self-contained. Each features an Allen wrench with the packaging, all the screws needed, and no specialized parts that you have to search out last minute, making it possible for you to account the cost and then trust it.

• No Need to Invest in New Cubicles

As your business grows and more space is needed, maybe you decide to go the simpler route and upgrade to a larger office building – but the costs don’t end there. Now you’re in dire need of more cubicles to accommodate new employees and collaborative projects. How can you manage all of it without racking up the price tag? Cubicle panel extenders allow you to use the traditional cubicles you already have and make them larger, at a significantly lesser cost. Now you can create that awesome hacker-style desk space with a wrapping panel making your area larger, all without the price tag you’d have to hack a bank to afford.

The simple concepts are often the best, and when your office space is looking for a change, it’s time to focus on what works at the right price tag. In the end, these extenders can do more than make office life easier: they can save you mo

More and more offices are making the switch from traditional cubicles to a more open-spaced layout, designed to create a space that encourages energy, productivity, and especially the sharing of information for the best collaboration. However, this advantage also comes with a disadvantage – a huge loss in privacy. For some industries, office privacy is not that great a concern, yet there are still many industries that rely on discretion as their bread and butter, not only for completing their work but retaining their credibility as businesses that can be trusted.

Here are four industries where office privacy is still incredibly vital.

1. The Health Industry

Anyone who’s gone to the hospital and been forced to wear one of those nightgowns with the open back understands that privacy in the health care arena is hard to come by. However, jokes aside, when the technical aspect comes into play within the offices of the doctors themselves, the technicians, the scientists, and so on, privacy between offices and between cubicles is absolutely key, considering the information they have on hand and the amount of people who could suffer if it was wrongly unveiled.

• Identity theft.

The health care industry has more information on us than our own mothers, with access to not only our immediate contact information, names, ages, and so forth, but in some cases more sensitive legal information that could result in a horrible case of identity theft if revealed. Privacy within the office through privacy panels, personal offices, specialized computers meant to combat those “over the shoulder readers,” and other tactics ensure that only those with explicit permission and clearances can review the information, preventing a new employee, an intern, or even a long-time worker having a bad day from doing something unwise with the information.

• Embarrassment and loss of trust.

While your name and mother’s maiden name is certainly personal information, what can be more personal than your health records themselves? In the health care industry, patients trust a certain level of confidentiality which allows them to be open about the state of their health. If you knew you were risking a few new interns joking about your rather embarrassing disease that night at the bar, you would be far less likely to trust the medical profession in the future. This logic is why office privacy is crucial in the health industry, as privacy for personal reasons is just as important as for legal reasons.

2. The Financial Industry

A title with no short limitation, the financial industry such as banking, stock brokerage, and even online retail stores are under no small amount of pressure to keep that private information private. While an office does allow for greater collaboration, ensuring that the working space is kept enclosed and private is a top priority, with the aim to ensure that the vital and even personally dangerous information they have access to doesn’t result in ruin.

• Identify theft or financial ruin.

Just as with the health industry, the loss of personal information can lead to others taking your identity and running from the hills, sparing only the time to land some serious blows against your credibility, your financial stability, and more. Entrusting your personal information and especially your cash to an industry requires a certain amount of trust, with the confidence that such a relationship results in profits rather than financial ruin. By accidentally sharing a few numbers, a few names, or even allowing a passing employee without clearance to glance at a screen, people could be at risk of losing their entire livelihood. With this in mind, many of the businesses within this industry have taken great pains to ensure that privacy panels, enclosed cubical, personal offices, and more are set in place to ensure they can benefit others rather than stand as a massive risk.

3. Law Enforcement

Anyone who’s watched a daytime soap opera is familiar with what happens if a member of the law enforcement, or the government for that matter, leaks a vital piece of information. Not only does it weaken their evidence, but it discredits the individuals themselves and can result in slanderous claims against innocent people. This extends far beyond catching criminals and into all elements of law enforcement, where they are privy to vital information about several people that they themselves, and especially those they’re close to, may not know. With this in mind, office privacy can be the difference between a system that works for the benefit of others, and one that leads to huge lawsuits, a loss in reputation, and damaged lives.

4. Cloud Storage

You may think that the cloud is the exact opposite of an industry in need of office privacy, since the purpose of the cloud is to share information and make it readily accessible by others. On the contrary, cloud computing and storage is home to more information than any of the previous industries combined. In fact, many of those industries turn to cloud’s online sharing and storage as a means for managing their business. This makes it clear that the cloud’s ability to give access only to the right people, and to dodge potential information leaks, is vital.

There are many facets to cloud computing, each requiring a team of experts to manage it. However, cyber terrorism is on the rise and there is nothing a few hackers would like better than to stumble upon a random office conversation, finding a few key words that lead them to unlock that sensitive information. With that in mind, cloud storage, and both the businesses and the techs who manage it, are in true need of office privacy at its best.

Collaboration and sharing truly is what makes the world go round, but when it comes to the sensitive information we’d rather keep to ourselves, and the industries we trust to keep it for us, implementing a certain degree of office privacy is the only thing standing between disaster and a well-working machine.

Everyone works differently. Each person will approach a task with a diverse and unusual array of tools, techniques, requirements, downfalls, and advantages to see it completed. With that in mind, working collaboratively can be a burden rather than a help.

An open office is made to encourage communication and interaction, all with the aim to boost productivity, but for some, the sound and activity can actually do the opposite. This gets turned up to eleven when general activity isn’t the only enemy – a particularly noisy coworker is. You know, the kind who likes to read aloud, take their calls on speaker, or even approaches conversations with a voice of utter thunder.

You can’t let this problem harm your productivity, but there are better ways to avoid the distraction besides hoping for a change in their personality or even a transfer. Do you have a noisy coworker? Here are three tips for getting past this obstacle and staying productive.

1. Listen to Other Things For many, the issue is not sound, but noise.

You may be able to ignore the intense sound of a storm outside your window, but the noisy conversation of two nearby coworkers can completely distract you, preventing your concentration on the work at hand. The simple answer is to substitute the distracting noise with something your mind can more easily ignore.

– Music.

Studies have proven that music in fact helps people concentrate; it allows your brain to limit the number of distractions in the environment to a single sound, and then manage that distraction. With this in affect, more brain power can be devoted to what actually matters. Instrumental music is especially favorable, as our minds do not interpret soft piano or violin in the same way it does voices – a sound that is made to draw our attention and keep our attention. In this way, Mozart becomes a much better working companion than the employee next to you, because at least he knows how to stay objective.

– Rain sounds and white noise.

In the same way music helps limit our distractions and fill our ears with something easily ignored, white noise provides a healthy substitute to voices. White noise is specifically sounds such as running water, rain, wind, and so on, which are so normal that they’reeasily dismissed. This can also apply to a simple desk fan or an air purifier that will supply dull noise, but a pair of headphones can be even more efficient. Some rain
sounds can help to not only block outside noises, but also create a more tranquil mood that allows you to focus and complete your task.

2. Get Out of Dodge

Sometimes the best approach is the most direct approach, and if you are one of those people who find music and white noise as distracting as the noisy coworker, you may need to take the situation by the reins and find a more obvious solution.

– Ask your manager to move you to a different space. Your productivity level benefits or harms the entire business, so if you’re suffering from distractions and are unable to deliver the necessary work, your manager is suffering too. By approaching your boss and letting them know that a noisy coworker– who may or may not be named – is making it difficult to work, they can move you to another area, eliminating the problem with advantages for not only you but the entire company.

– Get to work early or stay late.

Midday is known as the most prime hours for work, as the sun is high, the sleepiness of the morning has faded, and the afternoon lull has yet to set in. Because of this, you might find your noisy coworker is a lot less active and a lot less loud in the mornings while everyone is still easing into the day. This makes it an ideal time for you to begin your projects, allowing you to complete vital tasks that require concentration before the distracting person arrives. Additionally, while no one likes staying late, if you continue to work after your coworker has gone home, you’ll have a quiet office that allows you to keep your priorities in order, leaving the noisy midday for less important tasks or even some web-surfing.

3. Take Action

If these more docile solutions have not earned a result, or perhaps they simply aren’t your style, you can always resort to the fastest, most direct, and – nine times out of time – most effective solution.

– Ask them to quiet down. While there are certainly people who must have a patent on being obnoxious, many others are unaware they’re being so noisy. Perhaps they have an unusually loud voice, think that communicating on speaker boosts productivity, or that everyone works in a loud environment as well as they do. In these cases, they are simply trying to do their job well and do not realize they are preventing you from doing the same. By simply mentioning the problem to them and asking them to lower their loud activities, the entire situation can be resolved.

– Ask a manager to speak with them. If you find confrontation as appealing as walking on hot coals, or your coworker does indeed have a patent on being obnoxious, the next best step is to bring the issue to the attention of your manager. At this point, your manager can speak with the employ with a certain degree of authority, resolving the problem that may have caused derision or confrontation between two employees of equal status.

Noisy co-workers are as helpful for productivity as a one-man-band in your living room is helpful for sleeping, but there’s no reason to accept an inability to focus. By applying a few of these three tips, you can see the problem resolved, your productivity boosted, and perhaps a better workplace environment – since everyone else can also enjoy a reprieve from the noise. If the noise is still unbearable, you may want to look into cubicle extenders or panels. OBEX Office Panel Extenders offers a large variety of office panel extenders to fit any cubicle or desk.

What is Color Really? 

Colors are different frequencies of light whose spectrums run from the lowest, which are in the red to orange. The middle spectrum is yellow to green. The highest is the blue to violet frequencies. The human eye is a remarkable natural phenomenon of nature. It sees 10 million distinct colors.

Many businesses and corporations believe in, and swear by the emotional value that colors hold for industries like: Interior design, marketing, businesses and their offices, and even in the prison system to influence and control prisoners adverse behaviors.

The Psychological Effects of Colors

Blue Tones: If one is trying to achieve a cooling, calming effect in a stressful environment, whether in work or in numerous business situations, blue tones are the way to go. Blue tones are soothing and are good for high tension and crowded areas, which makes them great for places with standing lines of customers like banks and movie theatres. Blue is also the number one choice when people are asked what their favorite color is.

Relaxing Greens: Greens are also similar to blues. Greens give an air of reassurance, and of course nature. Green is relaxing and is said to refresh one’s mood and mental stamina. Dark green instills concentration. Add some other colors in as well with the furniture scheme, or the mood could get muddled from too much browns in the room.

Red Tones: The fiery energy of red tones in furniture is great for motivation and productivity. Red is a power color, good for an office of authority. Reds are also emotional as we all know, celebrated as the symbol of the heart, which will add an air of caring to a business or organization. Red is an aggressive color, though, so make sure you don’t go overboard.

White: A clean color, hygienic, and hospital like. White is a no distractions color. White is definitely better when suited to a doctor’s office, rather than a business office. White can come off to customers or clients as being too cold and unimaginative. White also gets dirty far too quickly when it comes to the office.

Black is Black: This color is better for the ceilings of warehouses. It is great for a men’s suit or at funerals, but not for furniture in a business, unless it’s a nice leather couch, but black instead of brown with leather still either gives that dark biker look in an office, or a mortuary waiting room. Black can be great for going to sleep, but it can also be a negative influence to some psychologically in a deeply depressing way.

Dismal gray: This color is perceived as totally neutral. This is why there are no proven psychological attributes of gray that are known. It is a lack of any color in its form – And therefore nothing. Gray can be depressing as anyone from Seattle can contest to. Gray is dull and listless and not appropriate in office furniture unless in small amounts.

The Purple Peace Train: Purple is a peaceful color, and a favorite for kids, just look at Sesame Street and the use of purple to instill non-threatening laughter for small children. Purple is a fun color that tells people that you are a young vibrant company that really knows the times and what other young people want. This is a great Tech color for up and comings. Fun, vibrant, new, just don’t try to pull off purple in a serious environment. It is hard to keep a straight face with purple office furniture. Purple is also attributed to reflection and contemplation, making it a meditative color, perfect for a break room at a contemporary office environment.

Vibrant Orange: Just as Home Depot gets your attention with a loud orange color logo, transmitting home value, knowing how color affects your customers is not just good decorating skills, it is good business! It can be a matter of boosting workplace productivity up to 20% if implemented in the right optimum working environment. Orange instills low cost, regular folks, good values. Orange is also festive and can brighten up a room when needed. If one needs cheerful in an office setting, orange is your color.

Everyone has a deep personal love of color and cultural associations that affect their experiences and perceptions of life. Believing in a subconscious connection with color is not that far-fetched. Influencing your office with color also influences how people see and instantly perceive your company. You normally only have one chance to impress in business. Make sure to give yourself a well prepared psychological advantage. Yellows oranges, reds, and several other popular colors play more of a part in our everyday lives than we sometimes even realize. But in the subliminal world of marketing, that’s a good thing for you and your business office.

Noisy, talky, and Mr. inconsiderate! Know these three coworkers? Some people at work seem to have no consideration when it comes to other people in the office trying to work. Noisy people top the main complaints from office employees, about the distractions at work that reduce their productivity rates.

An article in the Journal of Applied Psychology on, Stress and Open-office Noise, concluded what many of us already knew from experience – “Noisy coworkers can make it impossible to work.” The study of forty office workers found that workers in noisy open space type office settings, had reduced motivation factors; in other words, low productivity! Open space office formats, are notorious for being noisy but interactive workplaces. But even if you’re trapped in your own personal box in a standard cubical farm office layout, noise is still a factor in distracting and reducing productivity when excessive noise travels across the office room. Here are three reasons why office noise can reduce your productivity.

1. Lost Concentration

A 2015, BBC News Business article, quoted Professor Gloria Mark of the Department of Informatics at the University of California as saying that. “Email, social media, notifications, and countless other digital distractions are eroding our ability to concentrate on individual tasks in the 21st Century.” I think all of us can agree that our well-meaning social media electronics get in the way with what could be productive work lives, especially when we get too attached to them – OR IN WORSE CASE SCENARIOS, WAY TOO OBSESSED!

There is a time for social media and it isn’t in the workplace. Social Media is best enjoyed at home relaxing after work or on the weekend. The only internet action that should be going on at work, is either accessing something for a client or researching something for your work, not playing Candy Crush, or posting something on Facebook like: “Hey Kickin it at Work bro!, I’m Sooooooh Booooored.” Shut it down and remove the temptation to social media.

Cellphones are just as bad. Unless it’s a work phone, turn it off! If it is a work phone, keep personal phone calls off of it. Many of us have kids in the workplace, but the one’s that do, also know of all the needless “Can’t Wait!,” supposed emergencies that kids call into your work for on your cellphone, just because they want to go to their new friends’ house for movie night. Don’t think your boss doesn’t notice it too, or that it doesn’t influence him on your quarterly or yearly work review.

2. Hindered Communication

The second most irritating concentration and customer service breaker is not being able to hear what either your coworkers are saying, or more importantly, what your clients or customers are trying to ask you over the phone. Technically, if an office needs a quiet zone or a phone room, there’s an excessive amount of noise going on in that workplace.

This is why it is better to at least insist on upholding some sort of moderate noise level. No one expects total silence in a busy office, but there should be some standard of expectations on your part, if expected by your employer to work to your fullest productivity level. It is only fair that you have some say in your working environment. This is why it is best to quietly try to solve any noise problems yourself before resorting to going to management.

Pull the offending excessive noise making worker aside first, so as not to create any opposite sides between other coworkers. Talk it out low keyed and rationally. If that doesn’t work, then in extreme measures, strength in numbers may be required in order to bring the problem up with management. Keeping calm is always the best policy when trying to communicate with others in the workplace. It is always important to get along, both for productivity, and the entire office morale.

3. Divided Community

The workplace is like a miniature community, even if it is a large corporation. Work sections are normally put together in specialized groups, and those groups divided into teams. When excessive noise becomes a negative argumentative issue between two individuals or group, infighting becomes more prevalent in the workplace, and then productivity goes out the window.

Music is a wonderful thing, and it is tempting at work to kick up the tunes and get your work on. But the truth is music is a matter of taste. The feud between Rock and Rap has been going on since before some coworkers have even been born. The last thing a workplace needs is a running competition between two workplace factions who face off over Jamming vs. Bumping. Unfortunately, music can be very divisive. It can also be a major distraction and a productivity killer for other workers as well.

Excessive loud talking is also a persistent productivity drain at work. There are always those one or two people at work, that just don’t seem to get it that they can have a conversation without shouting it across the room while everyone else is trying to concentrate. These people are not hard of hearing, just hard headed. They just can’t seem to respect anybody else’s right to be able to focus on their work in peace. No one can possibly keep up with their productivity level with two bozos’ loudly talking about their antics over the weekend.

No one ever wants to get into a confrontation at work with another employee, but your job relies on your ability to produce, so it is unwise to just let it go while your production suffers. Stand up for yourself, but do it in a way that highlights your problem solving skills to your coworkers and employers, rather than get caught up in a problem at work over noisy coworkers continuing to ruin your productivity and peace of mind.

One of the most common things that people say when asked about their work at the office is, “I love my job, but I hate my noisy coworkers.” Whether in one’s own personal cubicle space, or in an open space office environment, rowdy project teams will get out of hand, or that click of employees that chatter more than they work, will start to encroach upon the sanctity of your workspace; sometimes even when they are across the room. Nobody likes a tattletale, nor the ongoing animosity or negative consequences that out-of-hand confrontations can cause in the workplace. It is better to take a subtler and more thought-out approach to handling the problem, by trying the 5 useful tips listed below.

1. Noisy Coworker Canceling Headphones

One of the most popular remedies for rude, noisy coworkers, who don’t seem to understand that other people are trying to work at the office, is noise canceling headphones. The headphones will also act as a visual deterrent to interrupting you at your desk. That “Chatty-Kathy,” who always b-lines to your desk just to shoot the breeze, will now have to have something important to say to you, especially if they want you to stop and take your headphones off.

Headphones have an air of focused concentration to them when one is tuned out to the office noise, and intently tuned into their work. For those who like to work to music, calm, soothing tunes are always a sure fire way to block out loud and inconsiderate blockheads. Big headphones have a psychological factor of letting people know you are busy. This is why small ear buds are not as effective. People are more likely to expect you to still be able to hear them through earbuds, defeating the purpose.

2. Avoid Public Confrontation

Go up to the coworker when they are alone, and politely ask them to please tone down the excessive noise. If you confront them in front of other coworkers, you risk causing an ongoing feud over the situation. Public confrontation will encourage other workers to weigh in on one side or another, causing a rift in the workplace. On the other hand, if your noise concerns fall on deaf ears, search out other working colleagues with like-minded concerns about the negative effect that the unnecessary noise has on office productivity, and then confront the offending employee as a group; as somewhat of a workplace intervention. This should be used only as a last resort though.

3. Find Quiet Refuge

Whether working in an old-school cubicle set-up, or a contemporary open office space, there is usually an open conference room, or in most open space workplaces, a designated quiet room. If your supervisor or another coworker asks you why you are working there rather than your desk, then you can simply be honest. Since they opened up the proverbial door, you can then tell them about your problem with the noise factor in the office without looking like the office snitch. This way there is no reason to have to awkwardly point fingers or name names. This solution may be inconvenient at times, working away from your desk, but it could be a productive godsend as well if put in the right perspective.

4. Be Discreet when Telling a Manager

There is a less confrontational way to tell a manager about a complaint concerning other coworkers. You can discreetly tell your superior about your noise concerns, without having to throw a coworker under the bus. Remind the manager how non-productive excessive noise can make not just you, but the whole office unproductive. This will up the issue and force the manager to actually do something, especially when low employee production will also negatively affect their standing with their superiors. Suggest that the manager sends an open letter to the whole office addressing the problem of excessive noise in the workplace. This will make your problem solving skills look good in your bosses’ eyes, and hopefully open up the eyes of the main offenders who can’t seem to tone-it-down.

5. Last Resort Relocation

People have different noise thresholds in the office, some people need the hustle and bustle of the office with a noisy talkative background in order to work properly. Others are just the opposite. They need a quiet, serene atmosphere in order to concentrate on their work. Most offices have areas that are quieter than others, and a move to that section, if it is feasible and permissible by management, might be the only option left. Once again, this is a situation where being totally honest will work to your advantage. You can state the other lengths you have gone through in order to try and fix the problem. Most employers will be understanding in this situation, and at least know that you are trying to be a team player about the noise problem.

Your workplace productivity is what pays the bills, gets you noticed by management, and gets you promoted. This is why it is important to take excessive noise at the office seriously, especially when it distracts you from doing your job properly. Workplace loudmouths will always be an irritating factor that everybody will have to deal with at some point or another at the office. Following the tips above will give you the advantage you need in order to shut down those rowdy office clicks, and muffle those irritatingly distracting coworkers that just won’t cop-a-clue and shut the heck up!

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