How can I prevent loud meetings near my desk?

Question

I have already examined the Etiquette on loud boardroom meetings? question and while they have a few similarities, mine has an additional issue (please read below).

In my office, my desk happens to be positioned adjacent to four meeting rooms. When people close the doors the noise levels are low enough that they don't bother me. However, two majors issues occur multiple times every day:

More often than not, the meeting room doors open are left open.
Sometimes people leave the rooms but then continue their meetings outside right behind my desk (sometimes as many as 5 people talking loudly within a metre of me.)

This has been going on for some months now and is consistently annoying and disruptive. The problem is that I'm pretty much on the bottom of the corporate hierarchy and most of the people who use the meeting rooms behind me are above me (though not CEO-type level). Also, a large number of different people do it, not just the same one or two employees.

My concern is that asking them to move away (I would feel particularly awkward about this one) or for me to get up and shut a door would be considered rude. My manager would be sympathetic, but I'm not sure what she could do about it either. What's the best way for me to remedy this situation?

Why would it be considered rude to ask people who have access to a private conference room to close the door? — , May 03 '16 at 02:48
I don't know whether it would be, hence the question. My concern about it being rude stems from the fact that I'm a grunt-level nobody and I'm closing doors on people wearing suits and ties. — , May 03 '16 at 02:52
Maybe you should add more beans and dairy to your diet; that'll keep people from congregating around your desk. — Crashworks, May 03 '16 at 11:21
Sadly, this problem will only get worse. The trend (in my industry at least) is "open office plans" to encourage multiple ad-hoc meetings to improve collaboration and productivity. The only solution my coworkers have been able to come up with is for everybody to bring their IPods to work and wear ear-buds all day. — Michael J., May 03 '16 at 13:31
I worked in a cubicle environment where my desk was close to 3 meeting rooms. Every once in a while, some morons would show up chatting about the sports score or whatever. "Hello, could you please take one of the meeting rooms?" always worked for me. After a while, I put up a cartoon, "Genius at Work. Do not Disturb." The number of morons I had to deal with drastically reduced after that. — Masked Man, May 03 '16 at 14:12
I always liked this sign "Genius at work, do not disturb, Genius is already quite disturbed as it is." — Old_Lamplighter, May 03 '16 at 18:30
While you say shutting the door would be considered rude, I personally would view it as you're a practical, solution oriented person trying to get things done. — corsiKa, May 04 '16 at 01:01
@corsiKa: Ah, but you're not the kind of person who would hold a loud conference with the door open. — Beta, May 04 '16 at 01:28
@Beta I might be, you never know. Regardless, the kind of people who join the meeting late and leave the door open are, and I have them attend my meetings all the time. — corsiKa, May 04 '16 at 01:55
have you asked to have your desk moved somewhere else? by the description you make, there should not even be a desk there. — njzk2, May 04 '16 at 02:33
I don't think it would be rude to either ask to close the door or to take the meeting elsewhere (when not in the meeting room), but you'll have to do that several times a day, and that won't reduce much your disturbance. — njzk2, May 04 '16 at 02:35
"Would you mind moving your meeting back into the room, please?" — Tony Ennis, May 04 '16 at 03:13
Make it clear that you're eavesdropping on their meetings by asking them questions about them during break-time... ("So how are you going to fire 5 people and maintain productivity in the nose-picking department?") They won't be long closing the door then! — komodosp, May 04 '16 at 09:29

score 84 · Accepted Answer · answered May 03 '16 at 01:21

84

There is nothing wrong with shutting the door, they should be closing it themselves. That won't help the people talking next to your desk, but here's a very simple solution.

Print out a nice sign and put it up.

"Quiet please, meetings are in progress."

Never underestimate the power of a sign, I put up a sign once and when I left that job years later, not only was the sign still there but it had been replaced more than once (not by me) when it had faded or whatever.

answered May 03 '16 at 01:21

Kilisi

222,118
122
486
793

60

In addition to this excellent suggestion (also worked for me), try requesting your manager to ask building services to install door hinges that automatically close the door for the meeting rooms. This will have many benefits [a] privacy of meetings [b] climate control cost savings [d] security and finally of course [e] noise abatement. – Burhan Khalid May 03 '16 at 06:59
13

Yes, a sign is definitely the way to go here—rather than attempting to be friendly and polite to different people every day about the same irritating aspect of your work space. The sign will stay polite; you won't, unless you're Superman. – Wildcard May 03 '16 at 08:42
1

If it gets bad enough with particular groups, get a bungee cord ready and just tie it to the door knob and they'll get the hint. Actually, why not request building maintenance and install a door hinge that closes automatically? If they think it costs too much, just ask them how many hours of your work would they need to disrupt before it costs more than the hinge. – Nelson May 04 '16 at 01:39
6

@Burhan Khalid: what happened to [c] ? – user96551 May 04 '16 at 07:33
5

A sign is an obvious solution...but the proposed sign content is brilliant. It addresses the problem, yet the people causing the problem think the policy is on their behalf. – May 04 '16 at 11:00

score 38 · Answer 2 · answered May 03 '16 at 01:29

38

1) It's legitimate to walk over and unobtrusively close the door, unless there are air conditioning problems or some other reason the door needs to stay open,.. Or if your culture doesn't permit that, wait for a pause in the conversation and ask "Excuse me, could we close this?"

2) It _should be OK to say "hey, folks, no offense but I'm having trouble concentrating with this conversation going on -- could you take it elsewhere?". Make it a friendly request, not an annoyed demand, and folks will usually cooperate.

3) If your own office has a door, it is always legitimate to close it. If it doesn't, consider wearing headphones to block some of the distractions.

(I used to have an office near the rest rooms, which was a frequent location for folks to pause and chat. I had to get over my reluctance to ask them to move along. It helped that there was a lounge area nearby that I could point them to.)

answered May 03 '16 at 01:29

keshlam

66,609
15
121
227

7

"wait for a pause in the conversation" -- waiting for a pause in the conversation in a meeting that you aren't attending (you just happen to be sat nearby) seems weird to me. Among the many reasons the meeting-goers should be closing the door, is that some random person who happens to sit near the meeting rooms shouldn't be listening to the conversations in the meetings in the first place -- everyone who should be listening should have been invited to the meeting! – Steve Jessop May 03 '16 at 09:51
8

I generally agree, and also with @SteveJessop on not waiting for a pause. Walk over to the open door, knock gently on it and say 'can I just close this guys? Thanks.' and pull the door closed. And no need for 'no offense' - just politely and charmingly "Hi guys, any chance you can take this that way?". Polite, kind but assertive. By all means check this is ok with your boss in advance. – Phil H May 03 '16 at 10:14
2

Part of the point is to interrupt their meeting, so that in future they will close the door themselves just to avoid the interruption. It's also very hard to complain about "hey boss, when we have meetings this rude person who sits near the room keeps closing the meeting room door". – Móż May 04 '16 at 05:06
I was trying to allow for varying cultural levels of acceptable interruption, as explicitly noted, specifically because some may worry more than others about intruding upon the meeting (especially if it involves executives). Point was that there is almost always going to be some acceptance easy of doing this. – keshlam May 04 '16 at 09:13
If all else fails, ask your manager if they can find you an office/cube/desk farther from the traffic pattern. – keshlam Dec 07 '21 at 00:07

score 20 · Answer 3 · answered May 03 '16 at 06:22

If you are adjacent to not one, but four meeting rooms, all used by different people, there will be a lot of meeting traffic. I doubt you will be able to reeducate all of them on elementary politeness. (My personal impression is that most people who are considerate enough to actually keep a request such as yours in mind are already considerate enough to close meeting room doors in the first place.)

Getting people to change their behavior in the long run is very hard. Our office assistants keep asking people to erase whiteboards and tidy up meeting rooms - every time they send an email, things improve for a week, then go back to the way they were before.

It looks to me like you will need to close the doors yourselves on meetings, and ask people that continue their meeting right behind your chair to move away... for the foreseeable future. Yes, that is certainly a possible course of action, as others have written, but my guess is you will get tired of it, plus it's a lot of distraction. (Good exercise, though.)

My recommendation: try educating people and closing doors. If you find yourself closing doors on meetings more than doing actual work, talk to your manager and ask whether you could be assigned a different desk.

Nobody should need to sit right next to four meeting rooms, anyway; there will always be far too much noise there. Much better to convert this space to a lounge-type area, or set up the office supply cabinet, or something, and move people's desks somewhere farther away.

+1 for the last part. Near 4 meeting-rooms is just a bad place for a working desk, no matter how considerate and quiet people are! — Layna, May 03 '16 at 08:55

score 20 · Answer 4 · answered May 03 '16 at 13:58

20

In regards to the first problem, if your manager is sympathetic and has a reasonable amount of authority, then there is a very simple and cheap solution: get door closers fitted to the doors:

People will have to actively take steps to keep the door open with one of those fitted, so the default state will be closed.

These also provide fire safety benefits (because closed doors slow the spread of fires) which may be useful if persuasion of more senior management is necessary, and the increase to your productivity alone isn't convincing enough.

answered May 03 '16 at 13:58

Jon Bentley

344
3
8

You know those things cost money, right? And do you know how the average manager responds to ideas costing money? Exactly. – Mast May 04 '16 at 08:37
@Mast Yes, but not much money. The low end versions sell for about £10 ($15) a piece. Plus a couple of hours labour to fit them. If the manger decides that that is too high a price to pay to increase the productivity of their worker who is being paid a salary, then that's their loss. But in any case that is off-topic for the question, and the OP did specify that he has a sympathetic manager. – Jon Bentley May 04 '16 at 08:42
Sympathetic managers still need budget to get things like this done. In a perfect world it shouldn't be a problem to get something simple like this done, but in the real world it usually is. – Mast May 04 '16 at 09:12

score 8 · Answer 5 · edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:48

Conference room doors are often left open when some of the expected participants have not yet arrived, so that they will be able to see that their meeting now has the room. On the other hand, the people who are there should be using the time to discuss as much as they can without the late-arrivers. Some conference rooms can create claustrophobic feelings, and have heating or air conditioning problems, with the door closed.

Often, casual post-meeting discussions are extremely valuable. From an overall productivity and communication point of view it would be better to avoid disrupting them by trying to move them.

Enforcing door shutting and immediate dispersal after meetings is fixing the wrong problem. As stated in another answer, nobody should have their desk where you have yours. It should be a lounge or similar space, where people can carry on their post-meeting conversations or wait for a previous meeting to finish without disturbing anyone.

You should request a change of desk location, and point out to your manager the undesirability of assigning the current location as someone's primary work location. Moving your desk to an area where meetings do not naturally occur should prevent loud meetings near your desk.

===================================================================

In presenting this to your manager, consider pointing out that your current desk location is a natural meeting place, and so might benefit from a white board and some chairs. Workplace communication is generally a good thing, and managers often want to find and enhance locations where it is happening.

I agree the most with this one, just move yourself away from there. You certainly can't be the grumpy guy shutting people up but you can ask your manager for moving you since the noise is affecting your concentration and will end up affecting your performance. Just ask for it. It doesn't matter if you are the janitor or the trainee and these guys are the CEO and his team, if their noise is affecting you, you should speak up. — , May 04 '16 at 16:04

Paulb · Answer 6 · 2016-05-03T18:14:52.693

6

The answers are great. I suggest the following finesses to them.

asking them to be quiet, or move on, or return to the conference room and close the door: in a perfect word is the canonical answer. Unfortunately this is an imperfect world, and you stated you are junior. If you choose this route, it could hurt your career. There are so many people these days who perceive slights where there are none.
someone mentioned ear buds all day. Accckkk! Not if you want to hear later in life. High quality noise canceling headphones work absolute wonders, and won't ruin you hearing. This may be the most practical answer.
Some stated door closers. That would help part of the problem.Not all of it.
Probably out of your influence, but if many employees complained: white noise generators in the ceiling panels. I was skeptical at first, but must admit they are effective. They don't omit all the dB's of sound, but they do change in a way so it won't distract you.
Again, maybe out of your influence... sound absorbing materials in the passageway.

On reflection, I think your most success is if other people around you feel the same.

Update edit: You said you were junior. Well it sounds like (pun intended) you got the worst desk. That's how things roll, I've seen it many times. I'd invest in the headphones, not ear buds. When you get more seniority, you'll move away from that noise hot spot.

edited May 03 '16 at 18:14

answered May 03 '16 at 17:36

Paulb

317
1
4

1

I wear noise canceling earbuds all day and keep the volume low. It works out well for me and I have great hearing (at 50 yo). – CramerTV May 03 '16 at 18:46
1

Do you have a source for the claim that ear buds will ruin your hearing? – Christian May 04 '16 at 10:12
I think the claim that closing the door, or politely asking someone to keep their conversation, could hurt your career is overblown. Could an extremely capricious and petty person decide they don't like you for whatever reason? Yes, but trying to avoid offending people like this will only lead you to paralysis. Being afraid to take even the mildest actions for fear they will cause offense is much more likely to hurt your career than someone mad that you closed a door. – May 04 '16 at 11:08
@Christan I have no "peer reviewed" but Google it. This http://www.medicaldaily.com/earbuds-vs-headphones-which-will-cause-noise-induced-hearing-loss-366088 comes to mind Earbuds are closer to the eardrum. Also, people tend to crank up non-noise cancelling buds, which is the majority of buds out there. A noise cancelling headset is more likely to be played at moderate dB. – Paulb May 04 '16 at 11:39
@CramerTV you're doing exactly right noise cancelling buds at low volume. – Paulb May 04 '16 at 11:40
4

Noise canceling headphones are not necessarily better for the hearing than the normal ones, the noise canceling effect is a sound too. If you're worried about your hearing you should focus first on the isolation characteristics of the headphones/earbuds – gbr May 04 '16 at 12:29
@gbr, yes the noise cancellation signal is a 'sound' but it is in opposition to the ambient noise thus "canceling" the pressure wave. The SPL of noise canceling headsets is not going to cause hearing loss. You are right that isolation is good, that's why I use earbuds, they fit nicely and block some noise before turning them on. I had the Bose over the ear before but like the earbuds even better. – CramerTV May 04 '16 at 16:19
@CramerTV I don't know, I was rather sure I heard that they don't really cancel the wave, or not all of them at least. I can't find references now though, I hope someone more informed reads this and leaves a comment. – gbr May 04 '16 at 17:30
@gbr, they don't cancel all the incoming sound - it reduces the loudness (SPL) of the incoming sound. That's a good thing. An analogy is, if there is a series of ocean waves coming in and a wave generator sends a series of waves to counter them, what gets to you is a smaller set of waves. You don't also receive the wave generator's wave which seems to be what you are suggesting. Test this by turning them on and off with no input. Sound is pressure changes - higher pressure is louder or just painful like in a pool. Turning them on simply reduces the level of noise which is good. :) – CramerTV May 04 '16 at 18:22

score 0 · Answer 7 · answered May 03 '16 at 21:06

I have a very similar problem and have had some success talking about meeting confidentiality and the need to make meetings more private. Trade secrets, strategic plans, patient information, product ideas, confidential employee discipline talks, product and campaign launches could all be compromised. It would help if you could point out something that was spilled while they were talking near you. That may make them highly concerned and prompt them to take action. Watch getting yourself in trouble. Choose wisely what you divulge from overheard conversations.

I have full scale noise cancelling headphones. Even the best headsets can't block out everything, so I add a white noise track loud enough to help block out the remainder of loud conversations. It will never be perfect, but it may be enough.

Having your own loud conversation on the phone might help or strategically and intentionally congregating with your office peers in the same area just as meetings let out might cause stray attendees to naturally migrate elsewhere. Then you could all disperse and get back to what you need to do. That could be fun.

Good luck.

How can I prevent loud meetings near my desk?

7 Answers7

Linked