It’s good to talk
Or is it?
I’ve spent just over a week in New York now, and slowly allowing myself to revisit coffee again after being too afraid to combine caffeine with excitement for the first few days.
I love the Havas Village NY — the UV lit hallway and music are immediately both welcoming and creative. I don’t know who selects the playlist, if it’s contributed to by the staff then I’m even more impressed. Knowing the music taste of some of my colleagues, I know our UK selection would be nowhere near as cool and probably a mixture of Disney soundtracks and banging noise.
The meeting and huddle rooms mean there’s a space for every one and every occasion, and I admit I did got more joy than is probably necessary from seeing not only a room named London but one called Cardiff (where I started my career). In London we have a limited number of free spaces, and I’m sure there’s not a week that goes by without me still asking ‘Which ones The Study again?’ In New York, there’s a nifty Village app with a guide to every room and person — genius!
The relative quiet of the New York office surprised me. I’d just assumed it would be very loud —louder than I’m used to at home. On the top floor of 60 St Martin’s Lane I’m used to the hubbub of 20 conversations and phone calls going on at once, and I love it. It means I get to overhear what everyone’s working on so know immediately who to ask for advice on an issue or idea, and get to chip in with a point of view. Yes, it can be distracting and sometimes you just need to sit in a quiet corner, or put on headphones fill your head with your own personal Banging Noise to concentrate, but for me it’s part of the excitement of working in a media agency. It also means it’s not so weird when I start muttering my inner monologue out loud.
Where did I get my preconceived idea of New York noise from? I expect it’s something to do with television — where America, and New York in particular, seems to be noisy and frantic… But in the same way England’s not just the polite applause of cricket, that’s obviously not true. Moral of the story, don’t believe what you see on the TV.
I’ve been trying to get to the bottom of the library-like environment and, from chatting to a range of people, it seems that it’s a virtue of the respect everyone has for their co-workers. Whether you’re raving about about your latest campaign, or planning tonight’s dinner, your chitchat can disturb someone from their work. Ironically, many of those I spoke to said there was more conversation between colleagues back where there were individual offices — Surely one of the more surprising side-effects of a move to open plan.
I’m reserving final decision on which environment’s most conducive to productivity for both individuals and the whole agency, but for now, I’m concentrating on keeping my inner monologue silent, or at least very hushed.
