Free association with noise

Connotation

What do you think of when you hear the word noise?  Here are a few online definitions of "noise:"

Noise (noun): noiz

• sound of any kind (especially unintelligible or dissonant sound); "he enjoyed the street noises"; "they heard indistinct noises of people talking …
• the auditory experience of sound that lacks musical quality; sound that is a disagreeable auditory experience; "modern music is just noise to me"
• electrical or acoustic activity that can disturb communication
• a loud outcry of protest or complaint; "the announcement of the election recount caused a lot of noise"; "whatever it was he didn’t like it and he was going to let them know by making as loud a noise as he could"
• incomprehensibility resulting from irrelevant information or meaningless facts or remarks; "all the noise in his speech concealed the fact that he didn’t have anything to say"
• make noise: emit a noise
• randomness: the quality of lacking any predictable order or plan
• any unwanted sound and in both analog and digital electronics, noise is an unwanted random addition to a wanted signal. 

It’s interesting that noise actually is a neutral term- it really is just a sound of any kind.  Yet, the first connotation most people have when they think of noise is that of being irritated or distracted by it.  That’sbecause most people associate noise with not being able to relax or concentrate.  So, whether it’s trying to fall asleep or attempting to be productive at work, noise is not a friendly interruption.  In fact, the average worker finds herself distracted more than 2 hours a day.  In a tough economy 2 hours day per worker is not a welcome sacrifice for any business. 

Sound masking

Your company doesn’t have to lose productivity to distractions in the work place.  A simple and easy solution is sound masking.  You can’t rid your office of distracting noise, but you can cover it with a low-level background sound similar to white noise.  By camoflaging irritating and distracting noise, you and your employees can reclaim those lost hours of unprodictivity.