Noise levels in an office

A common question which comes up on noise assessments is what classes a dangerous noise in an office environment, with people asking what the safe levels are for noise in offices.

Safe noise levels in an office

The answer is a little nuanced. A safe noise level in an office is the same as a safe noise level for any workplace, which is an average of 85 dB(A) over an eight hour period however I have never seen an office which meets this noise level.

What people are often referring to is issues such as the sound of nearby industrial machinery permeating the office or sounds of copiers or printers or design tables etc. within the office itself. I have never seen these noises be present to such an extent that they are dangerous, but many people certainly find them highly irritating.

Irritating noise vs dangerous noise

Irritating noise is not synonymous with dangerous noise.

The issue is that what one person finds to be a continually irritating noise in an office is very personal and another person may have no issue with it at all. As my own example, open-plan offices are to me the very definition of the seventh level of Hell, I loathe them with every fibre of my being as they are always too hot, stifling, and filled with the constant babble of noise from other people working. I could not and would not ever work in such a tortuous and to me noisy environment, while many many other people seem to thrive in that atmosphere of collegiality and cooperative work. But that is just me.

I did a noise assessment recently where a production office was right next to some very large and continuously-operating machinery. While I was doing the noise assessment in the factory they asked for a measurement in the office as one person was really bothered by the constant low-frequency noise from the machines, but the level in there was only ≈62 dB(A), a common level in shared offices. The person who was bothered by the noise was not wrong or making it up, for them it was clearly an issue, but that doesn’t make it dangerous.

The noise in the office is not dangerous, but for some people it can be highly irritating and distracting, which means it is a HR issue rather than a safety one.

Sometimes it is a case of ‘that’s what it is’, while at other times maybe something does need to be done but that is down to HR and the company rather than a safety issue.

Sometimes there is a risk to the company

As another example while I think of it is a noise assessment I did for a group of people in a specialist veterinary referral centre who were studying MRI scan results in an office which had constant noise from people passing through. The staff there said it was impacting their concentration so from a HR perspective I would think something did indeed need to be done by the company due to the potential consequence of them getting distracted and getting it wrong.

But, again that is outside the scope of a noise assessment which is looking at the risks of excess noise on people’s hearing and the noise assessment showed the levels to be far below anything which could be dangerous. Here, the risk is to the employer’s actual business.

If it was a sales or accounts office is that same level of risk to the employer present? Not really.