Acoustic pods for offices are the way to go—and let us share why.
More often than we realise, office designs play a vital role in optimising the balance between workplace efficiency and burnout. Currently, the trend is to create open offices that generate across-the-counter workplace discussions and collaborations. Needless to say, this doesn’t do the trick of stifling workplace chatter and gossip, colleagues receiving calls, or visual distractions of people walking past your desk to go to the toilet or grab a drink from the pantry.
Among these, speech is the biggest distractor of them all. Unfortunately, this doesn’t merely refer to loud bangs or gossiping; it also refers to muffled whispers and the shuffling of papers. With the virtually useless cubicle partitions that only block out a semblance of visual distractions, this leaves ample room for distraction where everybody airs their business.
Hearing someone else’s business is also akin to the feeling of being scrutinised by everyone in the office, which puts staff members in a tough spot. It’s self-consciousness, hyper-awareness, and stress, stress, stress. In turn, this threatens to disrupt an individual’s focus. Once that does happen, it typically takes up to 23 minutes to re-centre one’s focus. This puts a severe damper on productivity.
Of course, while some offices include private meeting spaces like meeting rooms and board rooms, these are infrequently used. On the contrary, they can be too big to facilitate close conversation—and with such underutilisation, poorly sized office spaces can induce huge sunk costs on a year-on-year basis.
Blocking out distractions
Modular office pods can mollify these concerns. For fear of distractions, such pods effectively soundproof against auditory, visual, and olfactory disturbances in the environment. In other words, they act as acoustic pods for offices, and provide a cost-effective and viable means of regulating sound, ventilation, mobility, and discussion within a well-fitted space. If anything, it can also be used in complement to open office plans, as a way of curating distinctive spaces for private one-on-one meetings, and non-pod spaces for open-office discussions and team huddles.
At the tipping point, these pods can be the differentiating factor for higher-level productivity. After all, by muting the outside world, focus peaks and this brings workplace efficiency to newer heights.
Flexibility of switching pods
Modular office pods come in a range of sizes. Be it for those going solo, or duos and team meetings for 1-4 person(s), offices can flexibly switch from one pod to another when it comes to what the project demands for. Simply put, instead of people booking an entire conference room for three people alone, these modular office pods can be flexibly tailored to the right size for the right group.
By doing so, this mitigates the concerns of under-utilising massive conference rooms and inaccurately-gauged office spaces. Every inch of the office is efficiently used so long as these pods are well-placed and well-utilised.
Versatile pods
The benefits of acoustic pods for offices don’t stop there. Such pods can double up as modern phone booths for staff to receive personal and remote calls with clients. Now, there’s no more chattering while you awkwardly stare across the table at your colleague desperately trying to focus on their work. It’s just you and the caller.
Likewise, on the other end of private calls made to one’s dentist or their family, self-consciousness is but a natural consequence of the open office concept. To overcome these barriers to privacy, opt in for some office phone booths!
InstaPod ensures privacy
The pandemic won’t last forever, and neither will open offices. With an influx of findings on the harmful effects of open offices, pods become an increasingly certain strategy for streamlining workplace productivity.
Particularly in transiting from work-from-home (WFH) to real-life work, the general benefits of incorporating office pods into day-to-day workplaces have been found to strengthen privacy and mitigate staffroom stressors. Indeed, acoustic pods for offices may just be the way to go.
Check out InstaPod’s huge range of pods, and feel free to contact us if you wish to buy or rent any pods or phone booths for the office or home. We will do our best to accommodate your specific needs!
