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And the short answer is that conversation and music is more distracting than meaningless noise. Oliver Staley, writing for Quartz, reports on a study by Takahiro Tamesue, a sound engineer at the University of Yamaguchi, in which research subjects were asked to complete “tasks on computers, like counting the number of times an image flashed, while listening to both unintelligible noise and human speech.” Tamesue concluded that “[t]he more meaningful noises, like conversations, were the most annoying, and proved to be the most distracting.” That is, “meaningful noise” leads to “a greater decline in work performance.”
Can someone remind us again why open plan offices are so super awesome?
Thanks to Charles Shamoon for the link.