Please shhhhhh

I am confined to my apartment like many and it would make staying home a lot easier if people around me were respectful of their noise footprint. I don’t want to hear your half-hour cell phone call on the street, or your 5-hour use of power equipment in the apartment next door. There is no where I can go to escape it. It’s affecting my mental health and ability to work from home. The noise is beyond the help of earplugs.

14 Comments

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Interesting

Apr 2, 2020 at 5:32pm

I've worked from home for 4 years. I've had the worse of the worst for noise 24-7 and I WANT to work from home because it's more comfortable than anywhere else, but Jesus, people are LOUD! Still would rather deal with that than live in the burbs.

13 5Rating: +8

Anonymous

Apr 2, 2020 at 6:23pm

Buy a large fan you tool.

Next time turn the fan on and deal with it. Or else, why not just do everyone a big favour and move?

9 24Rating: -15

Sorry bout that

Apr 2, 2020 at 6:46pm

Poor baby... but I went through that and I moved. Didn’t make Soviet Russia in my apartment complex and ban anything that Stalin didn’t like

8 17Rating: -9

Anonymous

Apr 2, 2020 at 7:40pm

Someone's cell phone conversation on the street is too loud for you? Seriously?

9 15Rating: -6

And now you know

Apr 2, 2020 at 7:42pm

Ever live near a bridge, hospital, school, airport, railway, the beach, or Yaletown? Welcome to the city. Oh, where's my quiet space. I'm over stimulated. Safe zone here I come.

15 6Rating: +9

Agree

Apr 2, 2020 at 8:54pm

Some of us have a much harder time tuning out noise. We’re very sensitive to everything going on in our environment, so it causes us more stress than it might other people. I couldn’t stand having coworkers that played music in the office for instance ; I couldn’t tune it out and it interfered with my concentration. Similarly, having loud neighbours or having people yakking on their phone on their balconies or patio is really disruptive. If you’re someone who can tune out excess noise consider yourself lucky. We’re not all the same.

22 6Rating: +16

Actually

Apr 3, 2020 at 1:26am

It has been proven that excess noise and especially light pollution are not only bad for our mental health, but also for our cardiovascular health. Ever squinted at the oncoming car's ultra bright head lights? That's a stress response. Can trigger a high cortisol inflammation response over time. I think eventually people will take it quite seriously- somewhere down the line. Poor animals and pets too...

12 7Rating: +5

Um

Apr 3, 2020 at 10:11am

Quit whining. Put earplugs in and accept you’re not the only person on planet earth. If it bothers you so much, why do you live in a busy city?

5 13Rating: -8

Noise-cancelling Headphones might help.

Apr 3, 2020 at 12:55pm

OMG, I feel this post! My neighbour would leave her 9-year old son in charge of the four-year old and take off for hours to do her "church work" so the kids were stuck inside amusing themselves by throwing stuff, screaming, crying, banging, thumping, shrieking and howling. I actually felt bad for the kids because they should have been outside, running around a park or a playground in the sun and the fresh air but, no, Mum and Dad could be bothered to parent or find a babysitter for a few hours. When Mum was home, she'd play hymns on her keyboard and sing. Off key. All day. Then she decided to try to convert me by pushing religious literature under my door and blocking the hallway when I was humping laundry to and from the laundry room. What a piece of work! I purchased an expensive pair of noise-cancelling headphones so I could continue to work from home (didn't have a laptop at the time) and they helped a lot with the ambient noise. Didn't help it when my pictures and books would go flying off of our shared wall because the kids were kicking it or throwing each other against it or something. Eventually, I had to move and now I'm in a much better place. If you can afford them, try the headphones - it seems like most of your noise issues are ambient. Also, maybe ask your neighbour (politely) if s/he could limit their power tool usage to a few hours in the afternoon so that you can rearrange your schedule to do non-work-related things during that time, i.e. spring cleaning, cooking, Marie Kondo-ing your things, gardening on your patio/balcony, exercising, etc. If your neighbour is considerate, they may even delay their home reno project to the weekends, once they know that you are working from home and can hear everything - I'm sure you're not the only neighbour who can! We're going to be stuck inside for a while so EVERYONE needs to show some consideration and willingness to compromise. It'll be over in a few weeks. GOOD LUCK!!!

7 7Rating: 0

I hear ya!

Apr 3, 2020 at 1:40pm

I live in a very quiet building in a noisy neighbourhood. I don’t mind the noise outside but when my neighbours decide to renovate and build shit on their balcony it’s agony. The issue is there’s no escape and sometimes it goes on for 12 hours.

6 7Rating: -1

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