So often we complain about noise problems in relation to the accompanying distractions and loss of productivity.  While noise-related distraction is indeed a problem (since it costs businesses $600 billion a year), so are breaches of confidentiality.  There are many businesses and facilities that  require privacy and a certain degree of trust and mutual respect.

• 

  There are times when privacy is essential.

  Doctors’ offices

• Hospitals
• medical facilities
• Boardrooms
• Churches
• Counseling
• Government
• Military
• Call Centers

Whether a patient is sharing personal history details, a rape victim is reliving her trauma through much-needed counseling, a board of directors is planning its next move, or a caller is giving credit card information, each party needs to feel that their words are safeguarded from the wrong ears.

Sound Masking

In addition to noise coverage, sound masking provides a high level of privacy and confidentiality, as measured by the Privacy Index.  Rather than mute the conversations taking place through highly distracting means, low-level white noise is added through speakers mounted directly in the ceiling tiles.  The white noise renders the conversations unintelligible to the degree that every party is covered ad protected.

For better understanding, think of how much a flash light stands out in a dark room.  However, if you turn on even low lighting, the beam of the flash light is much less noticeable.  Similarly, by adding some low-level noise to the atmosphere, the important conversations taking place are much less likely to be overheard.  Adding the right amount of noise ensures privacy.

Rather than whisper, look over shoulders, or altogether decline having sensitive speech, why not try sound masking?

The McCord Real Estate Team

My mother and father are very successful realtors in Dallas, Texas.  My mom got her license first in 1997 and began working in a real estate office.  She quickly abandoned that office in favor of a home office because of office noise.  There were a number of issues at hand:

• Distraction- too much office noise was distracting while she tried to work or make calls
• Overheard Personal Information- she didn’t want other agents or passers-by to overhear her personal information as she made calls
• Competing agents- there were times that the agent on the other side of a deal she was negotiating was present in the office.  The last thing she wanted was for that agent to hear her confirming a seller’s bottom price or a buyer’s top price
• Lack of professionalism- similar to distraction, ambient office noise in the background does not sound personal and professional to a client on the other end of a call or in a meeting at the office

So, for the above reasons, my mom left the office and set up her own home office.  Fortunately, she has the discipline to treat her home office as an office and still be professional.  However, this is not the case for many, nor is working from home even a possibility for most.

Sound Masking for Realtors

A better solution for most would be the addition of a sound masking system within the office building itself.  Many systems are installed directly in the ceiling tiles themselves and the speakers emit white noise.  This low-level background noise covers distracting sounds and also provides privacy and confidentiality for all parties involved.

The result is that real estate agents can work productively in their offices, and their clients can get the best representation possible.  That’s an investment worth making.

Office noise is continuing to be a problem on many fronts.  The first and foremost issue that has arisen is employee distraction with conversational distraction in the lead for what keeps your workers off-task and unfocused.  Thus, many offices have looked into acoustic treatments, such as sound masking, to cover intruding noise so that employees can be more productive.

An overheard conversation can be more than a distraction- it can be a deal-breaker...literally.

More than just a distraction

Interestingly, though, we often overlook the obvious when we state that conversations are the most frequently reported distractions.  For some businesses, office noise may just be an inconvenient distraction that doesn’t allow for maximum productivity.   For others, though, it means that workers overhear each other’s business and personal conversations, which may include private and confidential matters.  If other workers can overhear specific business deals and trade secrets, for example, they can also leak that information or use it unwisely.  This may be a deal-breaker for your company. A simple solution is to raise the background ambient sound just enough to cover conversations and phone calls so that the privacy index

Whether you’re looking for ways to increase productivity or you’re trying to safeguard your business and your own employees’ private information, sound masking is an effective solution that can achieve both.  There is a wide variety of options, and it’s worth your time to find the best solution for your business’s needs.

What are other people hearing?

In that specific situation, I was hit with the stark reality that medical (and what I always assumed was private) information obtained on the phone or in the office is not at all private.  When I pour my postnatal hormonal feelings out in my doctor’s office, I want the comfort on knowing she was the only one who heard me.  I don’t want to look over my shoulder, wondering if anyone in the waiting room or adjacent office heard me.

HIPAA is in place to safeguard such information, but it doesn’t force doctors to implement any acoustic treatments like sound masking to further guard our medical records.  However, I love my doctor and would like to keep seeing her.  I just wish she would value me as much as I value her.