Ask most people what they want from a new office, and you’ll hear the same things…
More natural light, better collaboration spaces and a decent coffee machine that doesn’t feel like an afterthought. Acoustics rarely tops the list, at least not until someone has spent six months trying to concentrate while a colleague takes a loud call two metres away.
That’s the pattern Dr Peggy Rothe, Chief Insights and Research Officer at Leesman, has observed across thousands of workplaces. She describes acoustic privacy as one of the most significant challenges in modern office environments, one that undermines both individual focus and collaborative work. The Leesman data backs this up: 70% of employees are dissatisfied with noise levels in their workplace, and noise consistently ranks among the most highly valued yet poorly delivered features in office design.
The consequences go further than growing frustration. Sound and communication expert Julian Treasure has found that employees can be up to 66% less productive when exposed to just one nearby conversation. Research from Gensler and CoreNet adds further weight: 9 in 10 employees report being distracted at work, 8 in 10 specifically cite conversations around them, and 74% of solo working time requires a high level of concentration. Open-plan offices, for all their collaboration benefits, were often designed without adequate acoustic consideration and many are paying the price.
Designing for sound, not silence
The goal of good workplace acoustics isn’t a quiet office, rather it’s the right acoustic environment for the right activity in the right place. Understanding how to achieve that means getting clear on three related but distinct concepts that often get lumped together.
Containment is about preventing sound from escaping a defined space. Reduction is about lowering the overall noise level within an environment. Attenuation is about the absorption and dampening of sound as it travels through a space. These aren’t interchangeable, and each requires different products and placement strategies. When all three are considered together and applied correctly, the result is a genuinely effective acoustic solution rather than a piecemeal fix.
In practice this means ceiling rafts, cut-out screens, textured wall panels, soft seating and acoustic booths are all doing specific, intentional work. What matters is not just which products are specified, but where they sit and how they interact. A phone booth positioned poorly can be acoustically counterproductive. Larger or more reflective spaces need more absorption. Placement, coverage and intent all matter.
Dr Rothe’s research also points to something worth holding onto: the best-performing workplaces aren’t the quietest ones. They’re the ones that offer genuine variety, quiet rooms, phone booths and focused areas alongside more social and collaborative zones, with acoustic design that ties it all together. When it’s done well, you don’t really notice it. You just feel better the moment you walk in.
Why it needs to be on the brief early
The shift we’re seeing among clients is a positive one. Acoustics used to come up late, often at the furniture stage, when the fundamental decisions about layout, materials and space planning had already been made. At that point, you’re retrofitting solutions into a brief that wasn’t designed with sound in mind.
When acoustics is part of the conversation from the start, alongside wellbeing, layout and working patterns, the outcomes are meaningfully better. It doesn’t need to cost more, it just needs to be considered earlier.
