The Mistake of Designing Offices for Silence

The most productive office is not always the quietest. In fact, scientific evidence¹ suggests that one of the main threats to productivity in an open-plan office is not noise itself, but the ability to understand what other people are saying.

The reason is that the brain does not process all sounds in the same way. While the hum of an air-conditioning system, keyboard clicks or traffic outside may eventually fade into the background, an intelligible conversation automatically activates the brain’s language-processing mechanisms. As a result, part of our attention shifts toward it, even when we try to ignore it.

Paradoxically, a completely silent environment can also make nearby conversations stand out more clearly. When that happens, speech becomes more intelligible, increasing the likelihood that the brain will begin processing it involuntarily.

That finding has changed the way office acoustics are designed. Rather than eliminating as much sound as possible, many strategies now focus on reducing speech intelligibility through a combination of sound-absorbing materials, physical barriers and carefully controlled background sound.

For that reason, sound masking systems do not reproduce just any sound. They are designed to operate within the frequency range where human speech is concentrated—roughly between 500 and 4,000 Hz—making conversations harder to understand without compromising the acoustic comfort of the space.

That concept has already been validated experimentally. A study published in Applied Acoustics² found that a sound masking system based on natural sounds—such as water and birdsong—reduced annoyance caused by conversations, mental effort, frustration and perceived time pressure, while also improving perceived performance. Brain measurements also showed lower cognitive load and more efficient attentional control.

But if the problem is not the sound itself, but the information it carries, an inevitable question arises: what about music?

The answer is far less conclusive than many assume. So far, the evidence does not show that background music, by itself, improves productivity. A meta-analysis³ covering 97 studies involving adults found that its average effect on performance is virtually zero when all tasks are considered together. That average, however, masks important differences. When results are analyzed by task type, background music tends to impair activities that rely on reading, memory and verbal processing, while it may improve mood and performance in motor or repetitive tasks. In other words, the issue is not whether music works, but for whom, under what circumstances and for what kind of work.

So... Why do so many people feel they work better while listening to music?

Part of the answer appears to lie outside productivity itself. Several studies⁴ suggest that listening to music does not directly improve job performance, but it does help reduce stress. When stress declines, productivity tends to improve as a consequence rather than as a direct effect of the music.

That interpretation is consistent with findings from researchers at the University of Windsor⁵, who followed software developers over five weeks. When participants stopped listening to the music they normally used while working, their positive mood declined, they rated the quality of their work lower and took longer to complete their tasks. Once music was reintroduced, those indicators improved again. The authors concluded that the benefits seem to depend less on music itself than on its ability to promote a positive emotional state and allow individuals to choose when and what they listen to.

Taken together, the evidence points in a direction that runs counter to intuition. Productivity in an office does not depend on eliminating every sound or filling the workspace with music, but on reducing the distractions that force the brain to process unnecessary information. In that sense, the challenge is no longer how to create quieter offices, but how to make sound work in favor of the people who occupy them.

For more analysis of Mexico’s office market, visit SiiLA REsource or contact us at contacto@siila.com.mx.

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¹ Sources: Mak et al., Effects of sound on office productivity, 2012; Yadav et al., Auditory Distraction in Open-Plan Office Environments: The Effect of Multi-Talker Acoustics, 2017; World Green Building Council, Health, Wellbeing & Productivity in Offices, 2014.

² See Solorio et al., Neurophysiological and perceptual insights into the benefits of natural sound masking in open-plan offices, 2026

³ See Kämpfe, Sedlmeier y Renkewitz, The impact of background music on adult listeners: A meta-analysis, 2011.

⁴ Sources: Haake, Individual Music Listening in Workplace Settings: An Exploratory Survey of Offices in the UK, 2011; Sahasrabudhe et al., Harmonizing Workplace: Exploring the Effect of Music Consumption on Workplace Stress and Productivity, 2024.

⁵ See Lesiuk, The Effect of Music Listening on Work Performance, 2005.