Coworkers Privacy

When employees have too little office privacy, they may have difficulty communicating about important work-related matters. They may be reluctant to openly discuss company secrets with one another, fearing they might be overheard by a workplace rival or a company outsider who might spread the information to competitors. They may have to speak in whispers, causing them to struggle to communicate effectively.

Communication is vital to the success of any company. Employees must feel comfortable talking to one another about business matters, and they may not feel able to do so if they're constantly worried about being overheard.

Investing in privacy may be crucial to your company's success, but at what cost? Many methods of increasing privacy are very costly, and some of them are only marginally effective.

One common method of increasing privacy is to move from a cubicle system to private offices. This is simply not possible for many smaller companies. In small companies with very little office space, it may not be feasible to build anymore rooms. In companies where building more offices is possible, it may not be practical to do so. Building offices is extremely costly, and might not provide as much privacy as you'd hope.

Some companies choose to sound-proof existing offices for use as conference rooms when people need to discuss matters that must be kept private. Installing sound blocking systems is not very cost effective, and can also mean a lot of construction going on during work hours. This can be extremely distracting, and it's rarely possible to find a "good time" to install such a system.

Forcing employees to limit their conversations to certain areas of the building may help, but it could end up having a negative impact on morale. Employees are often resistant to new rules, and some of them may resent being told where they can have conversations. Having an open, comfortable work environment is a real asset to many workers.

A good low-cost alternative is the sound masking system . These systems help mask background noise and keep conversations from being overheard accidentally, yet they cost very little. Installation is relatively quick, and might be able to be done over the course of a single weekend in smaller offices. This minimizes the disruption that might be caused by installing the system. Sound masking systems offer the greatest level of privacy for the cost, and won't hurt employee morale.

Discussions about company secrets are a necessary part of business. You can't exactly implement your secret strategies without a little bit of discussion between employees. But how can you protect your secrets (or that of your clients) from being overheard by other employees, delivery personnel, and other people who have no business knowing your business?

Well, for one thing you can have a policy that states that certain projects can only be discussed behind closed doors. This will eliminate some leakage, but it's inevitable that employees will sometimes slip and forget this policy.

Another possible measure could be keeping key personnel on secret projects confined to certain areas of the building. But this might not make sense in smaller companies, especially if office space is a precious commodity. Confining people to a single room could increase their stress levels immensely, so this just won't work for most businesses.

No matter how strict your policies regarding the public discussion of projects or trade secrets may be, slip-ups are bound to occur. Perhaps they will happen when no one is around to hear, but can you take a chance like that?

In order to reduce the chances of company or client secrets being inadvertently leaked, you may want to install a noise masking system. These sound masking systems can block out a lot of the sound that comes from average office noise, such as fax machines, copiers, paper shuffling, typing, coughing, and yes - the discussion of company secrets.

Sound masking systems work by using white noise to mask the frequencies of other sounds. Although the brain can still discern those sounds with active concentration, they become much less intrusive, and the actual sounds aren't nearly as distinguishable as they would be otherwise.

A good sound masking system can help block the conversations of employees from being overheard inadvertently by other employees. It can also help block audio equipment from picking up and recording conversations. This is crucial if you work in an industry where trade secrets are vital to your company's success.

Of course, these systems have an added benefit, as well. In addition to helping protect your company's secrets, sound masking systems can help improve employee productivity by reducing distractions due to office noise and speech.

Noise distractions can cause employees to lose focus on their work, costing them valuable work time. The average person takes about fifteen minutes to recover from a distraction, so this can add up to serious loss of productive work time!

If you're serious about protecting your company's information (as well as your client's secrets), and protecting the privacy of your employees' conversations, then a good sound masking system can really go a long way. The added benefits of boosting worker productivity and reducing costly mistakes due to distractions can make it even more worth while.