I also started thinking about how this might relate to you. How could you use this to help yourself be less distracted by your coworkers and more able to focus? I thought of a few ways.

• Tell your boss you are having difficulty concentrating due to all the conversational distraction and ask for help in this area. You could mention how beneficial sound masking has been in other places. Perhaps your boss didn’t even realize how big of a problem it is.
• Nicely ask your coworkers to please not disturb you. This could be done in person or with a sign on your cubicle or on the front of your desk. A funny sign can get the point across without being offensive. (Passive-aggressiveness pays off sometimes!) Perhaps your coworkers don’t know that their constant chatter is really bothering you.
• Are there other things keeping your from being able to concentrate besides your noisy coworkers? Sometimes changing the way your desk is set up so that it is more ergonomically correct can help to get rid of all those aches you get from sitting in front of a computer all day. Its hard to concentrate when your shoulders are killing you. You might want to ask your boss for a better chair or a different keyboard to help with this.

So, what is keeping you from a less stressful and more productive day? It might be just a simple question to the right person.

The McCord Real Estate Team

Taking a Personal Interest in their Clients

My mom and dad are successful realtors in Dallas, TX.  My mom started real estate while my dad was still building houses, so I have watched her top the charts time and again and have marveled at how well she did even solo.  I believe her success is a result of her loyalty, friendliness, and faithfulness.  Each client feels taken care of from looking at the first house to closing day and beyond.  That’s because she takes a personal interest in their needs and wants, and she works hard to ensure they get exactly what they want at a price they can afford.  And now that my dad brings his construction expertise to the team, they are quite the dynamic duo.

Why she left her office

Recently we had an interesting conversation about why she left her real estate office and started officing from home.  The main reason was that she felt she couldn’t serve her clients well from her noisy office for the following reasons:

• Distraction- too much office noise was distracting while she tried to work or make calls.
• Overheard Personal Information- she didn’t want other agents or passers-by to overhear her personal information as she made calls.
• Competing agents- there were times that the agent on the other side of a deal she was negotiating was present in the office.  The last thing she wanted was for that agent to hear her confirming a seller’s bottom price or a buyer’s top price.
• Lack of professionalism- similar to distraction, ambient office noise in the background does not sound personal and professional to a client on the other end of a call or in a meeting at the office.

As a result, she moved her office home to batter take care of her clients.  However, it may be that you don’t have that luxury.  Perhaps your home is not large enough to house an office, or perhaps you have to work at an office because it’s more convenient for your clients.  Or maybe it’s just too expensive to buy all the equipment you need to work from home successfully, or maybe you simply aren’t productive enough when faced with home distractions.

White Noise

Whatever the case may be, an alternative solution for office noise is white noise.  White noise is basically a low-level background sound that helps your brain block out competing sounds so that it can focus on one task, one conversation, or one person at a time without becoming distracted.  In the case of clients, white noise can help them stay focused and not overwhelmed by all the background clattering while they are trying to negotiate a deal.  Furthermore, when white noise in employed office-wide (like in the case of sound masking) provides security since all parties can talk freely without fear of being overheard.

My mom has received the customer service award office-wide 5 times for a reason- she cares about her clients as if they’re family.  So, whatever it takes to make them feel personally cared for and protected is worth it to her.  Maybe you feel the same way.  Try this free white noise generator to see if it’s a fit for your style of business.

I love when people around me (we don’t have cubicles either) listen to their conference calls on speakerphone because they would rather ruin my afternoon than hold the phone to their ear…

Count your blessings– we don’t even have cubicles. There is no conversation that goes un-heard, bodily functions are shared, and office slacking requires some very high-tech and creative solutions.

How about some kind of background noise in the bathroom as well. Is anyone else just a little bit uncomfortable when you’re enjoying a morning dump, someone else doing the same, and it is completely silent?

Awesome article. My employer has one of these white noise systems – I have one of the bee-hive looking things that broadcast over my cube. It’s barely noticeable, and you still hear conversations and stuff, but then one day it went out – holy crap does it make a difference! When it went out it was like that scene from Bruce Almighty where he starts hearing all the prayers in his head (anyone?)…White noise saves my sanity…

Cubicles are an invention of the devil. They should be soundproofed. I bet it would even be cost-effective: consider cost of sound=proofing vs. cost of lost productivity. No, I don’t want to hear the guy over there’s phone conversation, and I don’t want random coworkers to be able to hear me when I give a credit card number out on the phone when doing a business purchase. Or for that matter, when I’m talking to clients.

Okay, lazy conference calls and taking a dump made my eyes water.  If I weren’t already convinced of white noise and sound masking systems, I would be now.