Office Doors

Started: 2006-01-26 19:32:49

Submitted: 2006-01-26 19:57:35

Visibility: World-readable

Today I learned the joy of closing my office door and sequestering myself from the world.

My employer occupies a 1960s one-story concrete block building. The east wing, where I currently reside, features a long row of offices on one wall and a long row of labs on the other side. The hallway is a hundred meters of flat block walls; sound travels up and down the hallway with astonishing efficiency. If anyone happens to have a hallway conversation, anywhere in the hallway, I can usually hear it. Even when everyone is quiet, the white noise is pretty loud.

So this afternoon, I was having a bit of trouble concentrating on the epic design document I was trying to write, so I shut my door and all was good. (My office-mate is in Golden for the week learning all sorts of exciting things about Labview. That way, we can dump the Drop Watcher on him and give me a bit of schedule relief.)

At least, all was good until my manager (in the office next to mine) started talking to people in his office. It so happens that all of the offices in the east wing have doors connecting them, and these doors are made of glorified paper. We've blocked the doors with furniture so we still have the usable space, but sound still travels. One day I'm going to hunt down sound-insulating foam for the sound holes otherwise known as vestigial doors in my office.

(I had one more bad idea: Block my main door and require everyone who wants access to my office to come through my manager's office next door, so he can block access when I'm occupied. This might not work too well, though, since he's especially busy and followed my lead in sequestering himself in his office today. My manager has some empty space in his office that needs a couch and a TV ... and maybe an arbitrary game console.)