The concept behind modern phone booths in open-plan offices is quite simple. A place is created where employees can make phone calls or hold meetings in peace. The resulting "noise", i.e. the conversation, does not leak out as the sound waves are simply absorbed by the office pod. No one in the office hears anything about the conversation. - It remains quiet in the office. Therefore, colleagues who are concentrating on their work cannot be disturbed. In addition, discreet conversations cannot be eavesdropped upon.

So far so good. But there are many more reasons to buy a phone booth. Another advantage is that the productivity of the employees increases if the phone booths are available in the office.  

How to increase productivity

Since the phone booths create peace and quiet at the office, there are significantly fewer distractions. And distractions are the biggest reason for unproductivity. A study by the University of California describes that after getting distracted, it takes at least 20 minutes before you can fully focus again. When hearing this for the first time, it sounds a bit exaggerated. After a distraction, such as a phone call from the person sitting next to you, you can get back to your work, but it has been scientifically proven that you are no longer focused and you are working at a lower capacity than before the distraction. According to researchers, you are only able to fully concentrate again after 20 minutes. (1)

Another study states that about 1.5 hours of working time is lost per day solely due to distractions. (2) That is 20% of the total working time per day.  

In fact, most of the distractions at the office actually come from your own colleagues and not from mechanical devices, such as printers. (3)  

*

Dr. Meis, a Swiss medical doctor, explains: (4)

"Mechanical noises, such as the ringing of a phones or the clattering of a keyboard, can be blocked by brain. But not the communication between two people, i.e. speech. A colleague's phone call or a conversation between two people automatically reduces the concentration of those listening in, by up to ten percent. Attention and performance therefore decrease involuntarily without the person concerned being able to do anything about it."

*

This is then of course strongly reflected in the resulting productivity. By reducing the number of distractions and interruptions, productivity can be greatly increased. Therefore, it should be a priority to reduce the noise and distractions caused by other workers.

The Solution

This is achieved with QuietOffice's office pods. As described above, telephone calls, meetings and video conferences can be easily held in the phone booth (QuietOffice V1) or in the meeting pod (QuietOffice V2, QuietOffice V3 or QuietOffice XL). The resulting sound waves are simply absorbed by the phone booths.  

In the office, peace and quiet are created and the number of distractions decreases a lot. As previously described above, concentration and productivity thus increase sharply.