Employees should be seen and not heard

Recently my supervisor decided that the women in the group were too loud. He went as far as to put it in our annual review.

To offer some perspective, our floor was renovated using a new philosophy called “open area” cubicles. This is supposed to foster exchange of knowledge and team-work. Because of the low cubicle walls and lack of an aisle separation panel, the voices flow out into the open areas.

We had an independent sound technician come over and measure the noise levels. Apparently the materials used in the ceiling, floor and cubicle walls are noise reflective, not noise absorbing. The ambient noise level on our floor is 10 decibels above the ambient noise on the third floor which has the higher cubicle walls, separation panels and noise absorbing materials. So the floor design fosters a higher level of noise.

We were also informed that, in general, women’s voices are at a higher frequency then men’s voices. So women would be heard over the ambient noise level much easier than their male counterparts. Add to this situation the fact that the ambient noise around the supervisor’s cubicle is lower than around ours. So when we speak above the ambient noise, the people in the next cubicle have more trouble hearing us than our supervisor does. The sound bounces off the cubicle wall, to the ceiling and back down to the supervisor’s cubicle in the next aisle in the same way that AM radio bounces their signals off the atmosphere.

Then we acquired a decibel meter that would allow us to measure the amount of noise we are generating. According to Occupational Safety and Health Administration a normal office space speaking level would be 70 decibels at three meters. That means that if a person standing three meters away from me, for example, measures my voice at 70 decibels then I am speaking normally. Even in my own cubicle, my voice never reaches 60 decibels. Even when I sneezed it only jumped to 68 decibels. Which means that either my voice is being amplified somehow, which I doubt, or my supervisor is expecting us to be quieter than what the department of OSHA considers normal.

In a follow-up meeting, my supervisor stated that all non-work related conversations need to take place in the break room; fair enough. But he also stated that all work related conversations must take place in a meeting room. Since there is only two meeting rooms on the entire floor that is problematic; especially since there are no computers in the meeting room. About 50% of our job is support of co-workers and customers. Now when someone comes to my cubicle to discuss a problem, we have to schedule a meeting room in order to have our discussion. That is not a feasible way to conduct business. Also, we often schedule meetings in the break room for lack of facilities and according to my supervisor that is no longer allowed either.

Obviously, we have to do our jobs so basically we have to break the rules in order to do so. He has set down rules that create a situation that is impossible to work within, and we are held responsible for it. The question now is whether or not we should take this to the union, or personnel.