The office can be noisy. Not necessarily “WHAT?” noisy, but the ambient noise can be a little higher than you might even realize. Between people talking, phone calls, keyboard typing, squeaky chairs, computer noise (fans and beeps, bops, boops, and chimes), humming from the lights, and just general moving about, it adds up.

While I didn’t work late often – hardly ever – there was one telltale sign of additional noise where I worked: when the HVAC shut off for the evening. I believe this was 6:00 PM (like I said, I didn’t work late often). But when it DID shut off, it became abundantly clear that the system was contributing to the office noise. When you walk into the office and it’s on, and it runs all day, you probably don’t even notice it. Until it isn’t there anymore.

Working from home has a similar effect, but it just isn’t as noticeable. And that’s usually because the system is turning ON, not off. That’s because the system is programmed for being in the office, and we just never really quite got around to updating it for working from home.

While not really a noise issue, one other “problem” was the lights going off at a particular time too. Usually there was someone walking about to keep the motion sensors engaged, but every so often, sitting in the cube it would suddenly just get really dark. Resolving that required walking toward the light sensor switch on the wall near the doors. I wanted to mention this somewhere and there wasn’t enough text to fill up an entire post. But since the lights going off was a little timely with HVAC going off, I thought this was as good a place as any to mention it.

But having the HVAC – and the lights – going off, and realizing how noisy the environment is, is something I shall not miss. (And as I type this, I am realizing that I think I am finding more things that I will NOT miss, than things that I WILL miss… hmm… sort of reinforces the idea of retirement, doesn’t it?)