<i>It&#x27;s simply that an office full of people, with the requisite fashionable foosball&#x2F;ping pong table, is loud and distracting.</i><p>Every place I&#x27;ve worked with an open office, the ping pong tables and social spaces have been nowhere near where people work.  I&#x27;m in an open office right now and unless you are actually coming to talk to one of us there is no reason for anybody else to walk through this part of the office.  The sounds I&#x27;m currently hearing is the keyboard of the person across from me and the soft murmur of a quite phone conversation a few desks over.  If I slip on my headphones all the noise disappears, even without playing any music.  If people are loud and distracting in and around the place people are trying to work, then that is a problem orthogonal to any problems of an open office.