Spent a Saturday at a co-working space and noticed nobody used noise-cancelling headphones

I was in Austin last weekend trying out a new co-working spot called The Village. Place was packed, like 40 people typing and on calls. But maybe 3 people had headphones on. Everyone else was just sitting there with laptop speakers going or chatting loud. I couldn't focus for crap with my basic earbuds. Am I missing something or do people just not care about background noise anymore? What do you actually use to block out chatter in shared spaces?

3 comments

3 Comments

martinez.paul5d ago

Yeah, that "3 people had headphones" part hits hard, I saw the same thing at my local spot and couldn't get anything done either.

mitchell.avery5d ago

The Village in Austin, yeah I've heard that name before... my buddy works out of there sometimes and says it's a total free-for-all with noise. I actually had the same thing happen to me at a WeWork in Denver a few months back, maybe 5 out of 50 people had headphones on. It's weird, like everyone just accepted the chaos and started talking louder to beat it. I use the basic over-ear ones from Sony, nothing fancy, and they still help a ton with the low hum of conversations. Really feel your pain on this one, it's tough to get in the zone when you're the only one trying to block it all out.

garcia.wren5d ago

Wow, only 3 people out of 40 with headphones? That's wild. I feel like every co-working spot I've been to has at least half the room wearing some kind of noise blockers. Honestly, I can't imagine getting any real work done without my over-ear pair in a place that loud.