The Open Office
Most offices measure between 40 and 55 dBA, well under the threshold for hearing damage. The problem there is a different one, and confusing it with the hearing question makes both harder to address.
For teams comparing workspace conditions with how work is organized, task switching cost offers a separate view of working patterns that can be considered alongside, not instead of, environmental measurements.
What the levels are
Typical offices fall between 40 and 55 dBA during normal activity, with private offices quieter than open-plan spaces. (Industry sources.)
60 dBA is not hazardous and is distracting, particularly for concentration-intensive work.
For additional technical context, see Acoustics.org.
All of this is far below the 85 dBA at which occupational protection begins, and no amount of open-plan noise will damage hearing.
What it does instead
Research at Cornell's Environmental Analysis Lab found that low-level open-office noise at around 55 dB raised adrenaline levels and reduced task motivation compared with quiet conditions. (Academic research; a laboratory finding.)
The mechanism is attention rather than acoustics. Intelligible speech is the specific problem: a conversation you can follow occupies language processing whether or not you attend to it, which is why a nearby phone call is worse than a much louder air handling unit.
This is the irritating asymmetry — the sound that measures higher is frequently the one that interferes less.
What helps
Making speech less intelligible rather than quieter. Distance, barriers, and absorption that reduces the clarity of a voice from three desks away.
Zoning by activity. Calls and collaboration in one place, concentration in another, is the single largest intervention available and is a layout decision rather than a purchase.
Absorption. Soft surfaces reduce reverberation, which reduces how far a voice carries intelligibly.
And permission. A norm that people can move to work is worth more than most acoustic treatment and costs nothing.
What helps less than expected
Sound masking, which works by reducing speech intelligibility and does so by adding sound — a genuine trade that some people find worse than the problem.
Headphones, which solve it for the wearer at the cost of their own exposure if used at volume for a full day, and which remove them from the room's incidental information.
And measuring the office in decibels, which will reliably show that everything is fine. The number is not the complaint and reporting it as an answer is how these discussions stall.
The honest position
Open-plan offices are not a hearing hazard and are a concentration problem, and the evidence on the second is real without being as hard as the evidence on the first.
Both deserve to be stated at their actual strength, which is the whole editorial position of this site.
The short version
- Typical offices measure 40–55 dBA, far below the 85 dBA where hearing protection begins — no open-plan noise will damage hearing
- Cornell research found about 55 dB of open-office noise raised adrenaline and reduced task motivation
- The mechanism is attention, not acoustics: intelligible speech occupies language processing whether or not you attend to it
- A nearby phone call interferes more than a much louder air handling unit, so the higher measurement is frequently the lesser problem
- What helps: reducing speech intelligibility, zoning by activity, absorption, and permission to move
- Measuring the office in decibels will show that everything is fine, which is why the number is not the complaint