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An overly chatty coworker on top of an already noisy office environment can make work an absolute nightmare, to say the least. Having to deal with office noise on a daily basis just increases the pressure of dealing with deadlines and other job expectations.

There are 10 steps here that you can take if you are having a problem dealing with noisy coworkers. Of course they are not all guaranteed to do the trick, but at least one idea should work to bring about a serene working environment. The most important thing is to address the issue before it gets worse.

Your first step should be to have a conversation with the people who are irritating you. Simply put, many people don't realize how loudly they're speaking, and you might be able to alert them to the situation yourself. If a conversation doesn't work, feel free to mention the problem to a supervisor. He or she will be able to make suggestions on the best way to proceed.

If those tactics aren't successful, you might want to consult the Human Resources department. It's in everyone's best interest for the employees in an office to get along as well as they can, and HR is a great resource to help facilitate this. They can offer useful suggestions, or even counseling if necessary.

Another way to concentrate when office noise becomes too much to bear is so simply close the door to your office if you are so lucky as to have one. Unfortunately, if you work in a cubicle this is not an option. Try to persuade your coworkers to carry on their conversation somewhere else explaining that it is disruptive. If all else fails, the next option is to put your thoughts in an email. This should convey why the excessive noise is impacting productivity and be sure to copy the offender's supervisor on the email.

If you're not comfortable sending an email about the noise level in the office there are other options. One would be to post a memo in a common area. Avoid a hostile tone and do not mention any names. This is certain to cause discussion and may even make the chief offenders realize how loud they are.

Ways number seven and eight to approach the issue would be relocate. Either move the offenders to another available space or ask to have your own work area relocated away from those creating excess noise. It may not always be possible to move, but the request may prompt other actions to resolve the issue.

The ninth option would be to provide your own background noise. A white noise machine or white noise generator may provide some relief. If your focus is on your work responsibilities and the white noise provides a distraction, perhaps the noisy coworkers will not be as noticeable to you.

Finally, the last option is to initiate a non-aggressive conversation with someone. It is likely you are not the only one to notice the problem, and if enough people sincerely believe there is an office noise problem, the more input you have, the closer you are to a solution. Perhaps a casual coffee and donuts 'noise intervention' could be a starting point.

Office noise can make getting work done difficult. It doesn't really matter what type of racket you are dealing with like phones, printers, air conditioning, or just noisy coworkers. There are quite a few ways to deal with this. Buy covers for boisterous equipment or replace it, put up dividers in hopes that others phones won't bother you, and last work out some type of agreement with the people you work with to try to suppress some of the excessive clamor. If you find that you still can not deal with the level of sound perhaps you will need to talk to your supervisor.