#6: Speak Louder

The Story Behind Speak Louder

Illustrated by EEK.

I feel like one of the most annoying shortcomings of open offices is the lack of sound barriers. Not only does this allow conversations to travel throughout the office, but it also creates background noise that microphones enthusiastically pick up.

What’s worse than seeing someone you don’t like working with? Seeing someone you don’t like working with. You would be surprised just how much you can learn about someone just by hearing their phone calls and conversations — especially when you don’t want to. The lack of sound barriers turns an average workday into a marathon of other peoples’ personal business and confidential issues. Maybe it’s because they’re saying it in a work setting but why do people feel that their words suddenly have shrouds of secrecy when they’re at the office?

Plain Text Description of Speak Louder

Two stick figures sitting in cubicles across from each other. One is on a phone call using the speaker phone, "Great! Now that we've established everyone on the call is under NDA we can start talking about the Super-Duper Secret Thing that no one else at this office knows about or has even heard of...what's that? Speak louder? NO PROBLEM!"