Differences in perception of noise and privacy in different office types

Abstract

Differences between office types with regard to their architectural and functional features may have an impact on the employees' disturbance by noise and perception of privacy. These aspects may in its turn have an impact on employees' satisfaction and psychological responses to the office environment. In a study 469 employees in 26 different companies have rated their satisfaction with the office environment in seven different office-types: cell-office, shared room office, small open plan office, medium open plan office, large open plan office, flex-office and combi-office. This paper discusses the results concerning the employees' perception of noise and privacy and put the results in relation to the two different aspects of privacy, visual and acoustic privacy, and the role of personal control. In the statistical analysis adjustments for potential confounders as age, gender, job rank and line of business were done, which are known to have an influence on perception and satisfaction. Substantial differences between employees in different office-types were found. The fact that there were such differences between different types of offices that mean sharing of workspace and work facilities was a surprise. Architectural and functional features of the offices are discussed as the main exploratory factors for these results.