Noisy Coworkers Ruining Your Focus? Another Reason Why Employees Hate Return-To-Office Mandates

Employees say constant noise and distractions make it harder to get work done in the office

Feeling frustrated by the chatty Patty at work? You’re not alone. It’s one of the biggest reasons why employees regret returning to the office.

A new Fast Company report finds that many workers say today’s return-to-office (RTO) policies have replaced the quiet focus of remote work with noisy offices, constant interruptions, and back-to-back virtual meetings held in shared spaces.

A healthcare communications professional identified as Alex told Fast Company that the office environment has made confidential work calls and conversations especially challenging.

“Being in the office made it easy to overshare but not do more work,” she said. “It just feels like almost anything but work is happening.”

Alex added that while discussing sensitive topics over Zoom, surrounding conversations create unnecessary distractions.

“I’ve just been kind of confused about what the goal is,” she said. “It feels like me coming into the office is almost more about demonstrating that we’re using the space rather than that we’re using it well.”

Her experience isn’t unique. Workplace experience platform HqO, using data from workplace survey firm Leesman, found employees increasingly want offices that support focused work—not just collaboration.

“This narrative that a lot of people push for when you come back to the office, which is all about social collaboration—that very much is a top-down narrative that is not backed up by the data,” HqO CEO and cofounder Chase Garbarino told the publication. “When people come into the office, they want to be able to concentrate too.”

Garbarino said many workers have become accustomed to quieter environments while working remotely.

“The quiet thing is very real,” he said. “Pre-COVID, everybody was numb to just throwing on headphones and dealing with it. Then, everybody got used to peace and quiet.”

Amanda Jones, a reader in Organizational Behavior and The Future of Work Education at King’s Business School in London, said employers have not fully adapted workplaces to how work has changed.

“You can’t apply the same policy after the pandemic when people have experienced this new way of working,” Jones said.

As more companies push employees back into the office, the report suggests that workers aren’t necessarily resisting in-person work—they’re looking for workplaces that allow them to concentrate as much as they collaborate. Beyond the distractions, employees say the commute into an office and the loss of flexibility have also made them favor working remotely.