I am on week 51 of WFH, p20 is at work, the kids next door are at school, only 1 plane a day leaves the next door airport and apart from the old guy next door coughing every now and again (not covid – dicky heart, but he still cycles 100+ road miles a week!), it’s silent. It’s starting to drive me mad – I need more interaction with people! I do put music on whilst doing some work, but find I can’t work with stuff on all the time. I just need that background office/student noise that you get on a big Uni campus.

Nothing to be said – the tapping on my keyboard whilst writing this has helped make some noise!

I’d kill for a slice of that

I am solo WFH now my partner and kids are back to work/school. Just a few days in and it is different. I am aiming for a daily lunchbreak ride while it stays dry.

Yeah. When my daughter was back at school & Wife no longer home schooling I realised that I should have recorded them to play on a loop downstairs, so there was some background hubub….

I wonder if there are background noise videos on youtube I could stick on the telly….??

EDIT – there is a ton of ambient office stuff on YouTube!! Who knew?!

I just need that background office/student noise that you get on a big Uni campus.

Or try http://www.imissmybar.com/ for a bit more customisation

@ahsat, There are office noise soundtracks on Spotify (and other providers I imagine), they’ve really helped me with that silence. Sometimes I don’t want music or talking but do want something in the background and these have been great. Some of the nature noises are quite nice too, albeit a bit too relaxing at times!

or if that’s too much:

Ha! Thanks – literally never crossed my mind that is an option (D’oh!)! Thanks all – will give some of those links a go!

I’d kill for a slice of that

Perchy – totally understand. But after a year, it presents its own challenges.

At least Hermes have said they are delivering my new mtb helmet this morning – I can have a chat with our very lovely local delivery guy.

I can send you my Tinnitus if that helps.
#neveraquietmoment 🙂

(NSFW language)

@fasthaggis – I feel for you – had that on and off over the last few months with long covid. You are right – silence is very preferable.

Thanks @lunge – I have spotify open as we speak – appreciate the links 🙂

I’ve got Paris-Nice running on my laptop, of the two hour programme I’ll probably watch 2 or 3 minutes but it’s constant noise that happily settles into the background.

Hasn’t kept me focussed on work though, that’s my biggest personal challenge now. I’ve little interest in work to the extent I am trying to work out a career move.

It’s been just over a year since I was last in an office and I was really keen on getting back a day a week from January – little way on not sure if it’ll make a difference or I am just done with it now.

If I was putting ten hours’ of cafe noise on Youtube, I wouldn’t be able to resist splicing in an ‘In the air tonight’ drum solo halfway through hour six, just to see if anyone noticed…

I do my bit to help others in your situation by playing my guitar with the windows open. It must be effective because after only a minute or so they shout “That’s enough! Give it a rest!”
Maybe I should sell recordings of it.

I’ve got Paris-Nice running on my laptop, of the two hour programme I’ll probably watch 2 or 3 minutes but it’s constant noise that happily settles into the background.

I use cricket for the same, Test Match Special is perfect work noise.

@chipps, I hope to see that uploaded soon!

Personally I talk to the dog more than I talk to anyone else these days, whole one sided conversations with a canine, I’m not sure the walls are padded enough!

Water sounds are great, they are evolutionarily built into us as a ‘positive’ frequency and induce relaxation and happiness

Researched it with work for acoustic impact of our turbines. Some frequencies are really bad, like that of a baby crying, for similar reasons. It was actually found that more ‘volume’ of a positive sound is better than a quieter negative frequency

Bit of a tangent there but maybe you’ve added the office noise to your positive frequency bands

I’d kill for a slice of that

Bigger taser?

Water sounds are great

Very seriously considering taking a power bank, a lawn chair and a tarp out into the woods once it gets a bit warmer.

Bigger taser?

I’m considering tasering myself instead.

I’m enjoying the silence today. Both kids at pre-school so won’t have to listen ‘The Final Countdown’ by Europe for on repeat today. Why? It’s the soundtrack to a video on youtube which is a slideshow of pylon photographs. The older boy loves it and often dances around naked to it (or with socks on). I probably liked the song when it was released too, similar age to my boy now, but now that shreaking is starting to grate on me. But today, it’s just low volume traffic, a pigeon or two, and the hum of a NAS drive.

Radio 4 works for me….

(Just turn if off quick if you ever hear the words “Dan Saladino”)

Water sounds are great, they are evolutionarily built into us as a ‘positive’ frequency and induce relaxation and happiness

The reason you get fountains and water features in public squares and large lobbies is because they are effectively white noise generators and block out other distracting noise. The sound of coffee machines in cafes works in the same way really – in the ‘before times’ I used to be able to get a surprising amount of focused work done in a cafe waiting to pick up my car from the garage just because the din of the cofffee machine cuts out the outside world.

Often the problem with ‘silence’ isn’t so much that you can’t hear anything its more that you get distracted by stuff you normally can’t hear.

I find when I’m doing quite solitary work TV and radio are are a better background that music / streaming etc. At home I have the TV on with the sound down. Broadcast media has a ‘broadcast clock’ – the hour is broken up by scheduled features. While people tend to moan about the DJ’s banter between the songs it provides a really useful meter to subconsciously measure the day by

At least Hermes have said they are delivering my new mtb helmet this morning

Good luck with that. Apparently, the industrial unit I work at was closed yesterday between 1pm and 3pm…

Pretty sure it’s not purely the noise. I have music on, or TV sometimes. Got sick of the bollocks on the radio. I was never that big on interaction, but its really needed occasionally.
Online chats really don’t cut it. It’s all become so boring. Completely understand why so many people have got dogs… seriously considering it myself.

@Martinhutch
That reminds me of the story about when Joanne Milne’s cochlear implants were first turned on (google it).Her long term friend had made a special playlist for her to celebrate and it was broadcast live on a Lauren Laverne Memory Tapes session. It was a beautiful piece of live radio and the video of when she hears things for the first time is a joyous thing.:-)

@ahsat – maybe it’s an opportunity to set up the “STW WFH but really need some idle chat club” ?

Some of us are on Zoom/Teams/Skype most of the day so an interesting distraction with some real people might be a nice way to spend 25-30mins?

Ooo, must look Joanne Milne up!

Soundofcolleagues.com is pretty good, especially the opportunity to add an office dog to thecmix. 🙂

I feel utterly blessed as I’ve been allowed back into the office for a few days this week – mentally it’s been a real boost, hopeful I can have the odd day here and there, serves as a reminder after a year WFH that there IS something to look forward to.

Happily trade you the Mrs, my 3yr old and 7 month old. All in the same room as me trying to WFH. There is only so much noise cancelling headphones can do. House isn’t big enough to work elsewhere 🙁

I’d kill for actual silence, rather than blasts of long Coivid increased tinnitus intermixed with frequent screams coming from the TV… Better half on long Covid sick leave has taken to watching horror films through the day, often while knitting farm animals! 😆

Vampiric cuddly goats?

Cricket is now on Talk Sport, it always seems to have a nice tempo for home working.

Telly on with nothing too taxing, news, masterchef, wheeler dealers whatever floats your boat.

I’d love a week working from home, on furlough etc. Or a month. My life has been pretty much normal the last year, the only difference being the initially nice customers (generally not specifically) have now become super demanding asshats and we’ve hardly spent any money for 6 months.

But yeah. A month off would be lovely.

I’d love a week working from home, on furlough etc.

And I’d love to be in a busy office/shop surrounded by people.
it’s tough working alone in your spare room for many people, a bit of ambient noise can help that.

Go for a walk. A couple of laps around the block will do you the world of good.

House across the way is having some work done and the builders have been cranking out shit techno all week. I’ve heard nothing but BM-CH-BM-CH-BM-CH-BM-CH-BM-CH-BM-CH-BM-CH-BM-CH-BM-CH-BM-CH-BM-CH-BM-CH-BM-CH-BM-CH-BM-CH-BM-CH-BM-CH-BM-CH-BM-CH-BM-CH-BM-CH-BM-CH-BM-CH-BM-CH-BM-CH-BM-CH-BM-CH-BM-CH-BM-CH-BM-CH-BM-CH-BM-CH-BM-CH-BM-CH-BM-CH-BM-CH-BM-CH-BM-CH-BM-CH-BM-CH-BM-CH-BM-CH-BM-CH-BM-CH-BM-CH-BM-CH-BM-CH-BM-CH-BM-CH-BM-CH-BM-CH-BM-CH-BM-CH-BM-CH-BM-CH-BM-CH-BM-CH-BM-CH-BM-CH-BM-CH-BM-CH-BM-CH-BM-CH-BM-CH-BM-CH-BM-CH-BM-CH-BM-CH-BM-CH-BM-CH-BM-CH-BM-CH-BM-CH-BM-CH-BM-CH-BM-CH-BM-CH-BM-CH-BM-CH-BM-CH-BM-CH-BM-CH-BM-CH-BM-CH-BM-CH-BM-CH-BM-CH-BM-CH-BM-CH-BM-CH-BM-CH-BM-CH-BM-CH-BM-CH-BM-CH-BM-CH-BM-CH-BM-CH-BM-CH-BM-CH-BM-CH-BM-CH-BM-CH-BM-CH since Monday and I’m about ready to murder them to death.

Am I the only one who’s tapping his foot and nodding along to that?

Depends. Are you my neighbour’s builder?

Depends. Are you my neighbour’s builder?

perchy might be like Tyres from Spaced 😉