Loud typing in lounges - rude or not?

[JohnK]

There are a lot of things I find irritating. Loud typing is one of them. Another is loud, meaningless, phone conversations. Another is the hissing, scratching, that comes from loud, leaking, headphones attached to PCs, laptops, iPads, iPods etc and are more than 5 metres away. I should not have to come over to tell you it is too loud. You should already know it is way too loud.

I know people are saying that we all need to be considerate when out in public. I do understand and I do apologise but it is the ones that are being disruptive that need to be considerate of others around them and not the other way around....

 

[Awesom Andy]

I wouldn't really care about the loud typing.

We can definitely see that from your avatar.

 

[Robert K]

Bust out your phone, set the keyboard click sound on loudest and type away.

 

[FuzzyAUS]

Bust out your phone, set the keyboard click sound on loudest and type away.

I like your thinking...

 

[Storyteller]

There are a lot of things I find irritating. Loud typing is one of them. Another is loud, meaningless, phone conversations. Another is the hissing, scratching, that comes from loud, leaking, headphones attached to PCs, laptops, iPads, iPods etc and are more than 5 metres away. I should not have to come over to tell you it is too loud. You should already know it is way too loud.

I know people are saying that we all need to be considerate when out in public. I do understand and I do apologise but it is the ones that are being disruptive that need to be considerate of others around them and not the other way around....

Agree with the noise from headphones. If I can hear it & my ears are not attached to the headphones, it's too loud. I usually look at them a couple of times in that way that says yes you, it's you I'm looking at. If that doesn't work I quickly move to tapping them on the arm & telling them it's a bit loud, next step is to say that seeing I am sharing the music with them I'd like my request to be played next. If we are on board, I look first, then ask the FA to ask them to turn it down. Usually works. If they have fallen asleep & headphones /earplugs are leaking sound, I try to pull the jack out of the seat console. Figure this would be less upsetting that pulling the plugs out of their ears & trying to find the other end of the leads.

Typing loudly is a difficult one. They are working / intent on getting finished, but ... I try to move if in lounge. If on board & it's long haul I'd ask if they could type softer. Or if they could turn the volume down on their keyboard. Usually gets me an explanation on how keyboards work. If I can I keep them talking or a bit, After a while their concentration is gone / they are bored / the grog has kicked in, so they go to sleep.

 

[amaroo]

I find people on phones who go out of their way so everyone can hear just how FF their life is are more annoying than most other things.

Maybe he/she was typing out a resignation letter or something similar & just needed to thump something.

Sorry to hear about the headphones......the little cough are everywhere - my mum had her handbag pick pocketed last week in Sevilla & lost her purse:evil:.....she is still in a state of denial that it could happen whilst she was holding the bag:shock:

 

[Major]

If the noise from a keyboard is too loud then the lounge architects have failed.
There should be more sound absorbtion material in that area and perhaps better attenuation from the rest of the lounge.

 

[trippin_the_rift]

Maybe it is your fiance who can type at 100wpm, anyone else I would just move. :idea:

ahh... you clicked on as to why I couldn't move :!:

 

[mrs.dr.ron]

I find people on phones who go out of their way so everyone can hear just how FF their life is are more annoying than most other things .....

Me too !!! And they are everywhere.

 

[simongr]

I find it hard to imagine how typing could be too loud. I personally don't get irritated by much in the lounge - I most ignore the rest of the world. The only thing which annoys me greatly is loud guffawing laughter. I have once experienced someone on Skype doing a video call to friends without a headphone which I was more shocked than annoyed by.

 

[JohnK]

I find it hard to imagine how typing could be too loud.

There is a guy who sits about 10 metres away from me at work. He is a lovely bloke and I have nothing against him.

When he is testing entering a quote he goes through the prompt screens very quickly pressing the enter key all the time. I can hear that enter key being smashed with his thumb as he goes through the screens. It very annoying and breaks my concentration. There is another guy with extremely loud, leaking, speakers about 5 metres away. There is another about 5 metres away who loves shelling peanuts for about 2 hours every afternoon. There is another about 4-5 metres away who has this extremely loud guffawing laughter all day long and appears to be intentional or caused by nerves. I am not an expert.

They still expect me to be 100% productive. Not good....

 

[haydensydney]

There is a guy who sits about 10 metres away from me at work. He is a lovely bloke and I have nothing against him.

When he is testing entering a quote he goes through the prompt screens very quickly pressing the enter key all the time. I can hear that enter key being smashed with his thumb as he goes through the screens. It very annoying and breaks my concentration. There is another guy with extremely loud, leaking, speakers about 5 metres away. There is another about 5 metres away who loves shelling peanuts for about 2 hours every afternoon. There is another about 4-5 metres away who has this extremely loud guffawing laughter all day long and appears to be intentional or caused by nerves. I am not an expert.

Have you considered the possibility that you would be an ideal candidate for wearing headphones and listening to music on your device of choice?

Sometimes you need to assess whether a) it is those other people with the problem for actually making the noise, or b) is you who has the problem with actually hearing the noises that other people make? Most people I know wouldn't get irritated by hearing what is pretty much normal open-office sounds (though I agree on leaking music from headphones, which is very inconsiderate).

 

[richie9x]

It is hard for me to imagine how typing could be so loud as to be annoying. On a typical laptop it is quite quiet even when typing fast. Would be hard to hear over the standard noises in an airport lounge - for instance aircon, people talking, noise from planes.

Of course if they were using an old manual typewriter or perhaps an old IBM model M keyboard it would be noisy. But it would be unusual to see either of those in an airport lounge these days.

The only time I have ever found typing annoying was from a Sikh who was wearing a kara (a big steel bracelets that Skihs wear as part of their religion). The noise of the big steel bracelet repeatedly banging into the desk was quite annoying, so I just moved away.

 

[JohnK]

Have you considered the possibility that you would be an ideal candidate for wearing headphones and listening to music on your device of choice?

Perhaps I am the one with the problem. Wearing headphones all day is not the solution either.

 

[Ewing]

I've got a theory that anything over ~100wpm is irritating.

My apologies.

Having said that, it was on my MacBook Air, so hopefully that's not too loud in the lounge

 

[medhead]

I strongly disagree with some of the opinions in this thread. I'm not going to say which ones.

They still expect me to be 100% productive. Not good....

You outlined one of the reasons I left an open plan environment a couple of years ago. I'm still dumbfounded by the logic of moving people from offices to save money, into an environment that is going to kill productivity.

 

[JohnK]

You outlined one of the reasons I left an open plan environment a couple of years ago. I'm still dumbfounded by the logic of moving people from offices to save money, into an environment that is going to kill productivity.

Don't worry it gets better. We are moving in April from an office with partial partitions to an office with no partitions. :shock: It is almost like people sitting in rows of 4 so you can have someone next to you, behind you and in front of you no more than a metre or so away.

I hate open plan as I feel like the whole day is breakfast time and lunch time for someone or other and while they are at breakfast and lunch it is OK to disrupt others around them as that is the nature of their job.

Which ever warped mind thinks that open plan environments are productive is seriously kidding themselves.

 

[medhead]

Don't worry it gets better. We are moving in April from an office with partial partitions to an office with no partitions. :shock: It is almost like people sitting in rows of 4 so you can have someone next to you, behind you and in front of you no more than a metre or so away.

I hate open plan as I feel like the whole day is breakfast time and lunch time for someone or other and while they are at breakfast and lunch it is OK to disrupt others around them as that is the nature of their job.

Which ever warped mind thinks that open plan environments are productive is seriously kidding themselves.

Thats the type of open plan I left. Low partitions at eye height when seated. It didn't conform to their own space guidelines or the OHS standards for desk sizes and such. But we did get told we weren't allowed to eat as it distracted people, nor have hot drinks, no bins at the desk - don't need that bit of paper get up 7 m walk to throw it out. Filing to do, the compactus is at the other end of the floor. Anyway you would have hated me because I decided to not modify my behaviour, I raised all the distraction issues before we moved, they ignored me, not my problem.

I suppose at least the space saved means they can get in all the extra staff they need to maintain productive.

 

[JohnK]

But we did get told we weren't allowed to eat as it distracted people, nor have hot drinks, no bins at the desk - don't need that bit of paper get up 7 m walk to throw it out.

That sounds like a good policy. The company I work for is gutless. They cannot even be bothered to have a sign on the water cooler so people do not stick their bottles on the nozzle while filling them with water. Cannot be good for hygiene.

Does anyone in their right minds think that it is OK to open a can of stinking garlic tuna at their desk to put in their salad. You can smell the stench from the other side of the room. The moron who does it at work thinks it is OK.

Let me tell you that it is not ok. But I am the one in the wrong and I am not allowed to complain as it is called whinging....

 

[medhead]

That sounds like a good policy. The company I work for is gutless. They cannot even be bothered to have a sign on the water cooler so people do not stick their bottles on the nozzle while filling them with water. Cannot be good for hygiene.

Does anyone in their right minds think that it is OK to open a can of stinking garlic tuna at their desk to put in their salad. You can smell the stench from the other side of the room. The moron who does it at work thinks it is OK.

Let me tell you that it is not ok. But I am the one in the wrong and I am not allowed to complain as it is called whinging....

The eating ban is ok provided they provide adequate meal and kitchen space. My old office had a kitchen and dining area but it was far from adequate. If you don't have a dining area in the office, maybe that's the problem with complaining - they can't fixed the problem now. If you get any input into the new design push for separate eating areas - they would hate to see that space go unused.