82 Business Spotlight 6/2019 FEEDBACK
on the table
FEEDBACK
READERS’ LETTERSJARGON BUSTERUnderstand the jargon — be careful how you use it
EASYExample
“With the new management,
everything’s on the table.”Please send your
feedback letters to:
Ian McMaster
Editor-in-chief
Business Spotlight
Kistler ho frstr. 172
81379 München
Deutsch land
Emails to:
i.mcmaster@
spotlight-verlag.de
Please include your
daytime telephone
number and full
address. We reserve the
right to edit comments
for clar ity or length.➻ ➻Explanation
Idioms involving the word “table” are common in business jargon. If you say that some-
thing is “on the table”, you mean it is open for discussion. If you “bring (something) to
the table”, generally skills or experience, you contribute these to a team or a company.Open-plan offices
We’ve read and talked about your article on
office noise (“Sound design”, Business Spotlight
4/2019) in two courses. It has been well re-
ceived, as the participants’ company is build-
ing huge open-plan offices “with all the trim-
mings” at the moment. Most of the partici-
pants are anticipating their new environment
with positive expectations. We’ll see how they
cope at the end of the year!
Heike Kampa, via FacebookKey(s) to success
Business Spotlight is an awesome magazine, with
lots of different and interesting topics. I have
a question about the In the Zone article about
self-help guides (Business Spotlight 5/2019). The
author writes: “Clarity and empowerment, it
seems, are key to the success of today’s self-help
guides.” Wouldn’t it have to be “the keys to the
success” (in German die Schlüssel)? Or does “are
key to the success of” mean in German nehmen
eine Schlüsselrolle ein?
Moni Strauss via emailThank you for your feedback. Here, “are key to
the success of” is correct — as is your translation
— because “key” is used as an adjective meaning
“of crucial importance”.
Ian McMaster, editor-in-chiefWie wäre es mit „Legal English“?
Ich lese oft Business Spotlight und finde die Zeit-
schrift sehr gut. Können Sie auch mal etwas
über „Legal English“ anbieten?
Nicole Fabian, via emailThank you for your suggestion. We will certainly
be including content on legal English in future.70 Business Spotlight 4/2019 CAREERS & MANAGEMENT CAREERS & MANAGEMENT 4/2019 Business Spotlight (^71) Ian McMaster, editor-in-chief
SOUND DESIGN
CAREERS & MANAGEMENTOFFICE NOISE
CAREERS & MANAGEMENT
T
he next time you’re at work, close your eyes for 30 seconds and just listen. Everything you hear, from the murmur
of your colleagues to the coffee grindershrieking nearby, makes up the sound-scape of your workplace.
this sound environment plays an influential role in your well-being and how Whether you are aware of it or not, -
you feel about the company you work for. In the past, little thought was given to how office design affected sound; -
however, new insights into how sound affects well-being and productivity are driving a trend in soundscape design in the workplace.
ly influencing our productivity. Twittering birds, rippling water and other soothing sounds relieve Sound affects our bodies and minds, ultimate-
stress and help us find our flow, whereas unwanted sounds, such as a loud coffee grinder, cause us to release stress hormones, which raises our heart rate and -
blood pressure.the most distracting sound in an office. When you Research suggests that unwanted speech noise is
can hear a colleague taking a phone call, for instance, the content of the call grabs the attention of your brain. Your productivity drops, and it may take up to
20 minutes to fully regain your concentration. The cumulative effect of this loss of concentration has important implications: in an extensive study carried
out by Steelcase, a US office furniture manufacturer, workers reported losing up to 86 minutes a day in productivity due to noise distractions. Since em--
ployee earnings make up the lion’s share of business operating costs, even a one per cent improvement in productivity can have a significant impact on the
bottom line of a business.
affect sth. ,bottom line [)bQtEm (laIn] sich auf etw. auswirken[E(fekt]
,(Unternehmens-)Ergebniscoffee grinder Nettogewinn,
[(kQfi )graIndE],distracting Kaffeemühle
[dI(strÄktIN],find one’s flow störend, ablenkend
[)faInd wVnz (flEU],kreativ arbeiten können hier: entspannt gut/
grab attention [)grÄb E(tenS&n],sich ziehen Aufmerksamkeit auf
heart rate [(hA:t reIt],Herzfrequenz Puls(schlag),
insight ,murmur Erkenntnis[(InsaIt][(m§:mE] (^)
,release sth. , Gemurmel etw. freisetzen[ri(li:s]
rippling ,shriek plätschernd[Sri:k][(rIp&lIN]
,soothing , kreischen beruhigend[(su:DIN]
soundscape [(saUndskeIp],hier: Klanglandschaft; Geräuschkulisse
twitter , zwitschern[(twItE]
Firmen auf Großraumbüros. Das stellt Architekten und Raumgestalter Statt auf eigene, abgeschlossene Räume setzen immer mehr^
wie eine Klanglandschaft, in der man trotz Geräuschen konzentriert und vor neue akustische Aufgaben. TENLEY VAN DEN BERG erklärt, kreativ arbeiten kann, konzipiert sein muss.^
ADVANCED
“ Unwanted speech noise
is the most distracting
sound in an office”
Fotos: Sigrid Olson/Getty Images
Quiet, please!
Tips for dealing
with office noise