The Coworker Who Hammers the Keyboard

I noticed on day one

First day at the new job. The coworker next to me started typing and I thought "is this real?" A mechanical keyboard. Blue switches. Blue switches, in an office. Not a gentle tap-tap but a sharp click-click. Like someone playing castanets next to me.

At first I tried to be understanding. "He's a developer, mechanical keyboards are a thing." I use red switches at home. But blue switches are a different level. The sound probably carries to the next floor.

Should I say something or not

I agonized for two weeks. "Your keyboard is a little loud" -- that's all I'd need to say. But for someone who just started, telling a senior colleague something about their equipment takes serious courage. In Korean workplace culture, commenting on a senior's belongings is... a bold move.

Plus, the guy is genuinely nice. Patiently explains things when I ask, gives thorough code reviews. I was more afraid of making things awkward over a keyboard than I was of the noise itself.

Noise canceling as a solution

I pulled out the AirPods Pro. Noise canceling reduces the keyboard sound by roughly 70%. Doesn't kill it completely. Especially the "THWACK" when he hits Enter -- that punches through noise canceling. (He hits Enter particularly hard. Like he's celebrating every time a line of code compiles.)

But wearing earbuds 8 hours straight makes your ears hurt. Around hour 4, you feel pressure inside the ear canal. After two weeks of daily wear, I developed a mild ache in my left ear. Didn't go to the ENT, but it worried me.

I considered buying over-ear headphones, but wearing headphones in the office signals "don't talk to me," which felt like too much. Earplugs meant I'd miss people talking to me. Why does every solution to this problem involve shoving something in my ears?

Are the other teammates okay with it

One lunch break I casually asked: "Is our office area kind of loud?" Another teammate laughed and said "Oh, that? After a year, you stop hearing it." Apparently you adapt. I'm at three months and I have not adapted.

But another teammate admitted "honestly, it bugs me too." So I wasn't the only one in the minority. Turns out this colleague had been wearing earplugs for two months. I had no idea.

Here's the funny part: the person making the noise has zero awareness of it. They're so used to their own typing sound. I once recorded it from my seat. 78 decibels. Looked it up -- normal conversation is 60dB. 78dB is vacuum cleaner territory. He was running a vacuum cleaner in the office.

I finally said something

At the three-month mark, at a team dinner (hweshik -- a Korean after-work dinner, often involving soju), I mustered some courage (and some soju) and brought it up. "Hey, your keyboard's kind of loud... have you thought about adding o-rings?"

The reaction was way better than expected. "Oh sorry, my wife complains about it too lol. I'll get some rings." The following week he actually came in with o-rings installed. Sound dropped by maybe 40%. Not silent, but tolerable.

A month later though, I think a few of the o-rings came off. The volume is creeping back up. Do I say something again? The same dilemma, round two. (This time I'm giving myself a two-week deadline. Growth.)

Now I kind of miss it

On work-from-home days, the seat next to me is quiet. Strangely, I slightly miss the typing sounds. The liveliness of an office, maybe. Working alone at home gets so quiet that sometimes I can't focus.

I ended up turning on an ambient noise app set to "office sounds." (Which includes keyboard typing. Life is ironic.)

Anyway, if you have a problem, just say it early. Didn't need to suffer alone for three months. Talking usually fixes things. But the "talking" part is the hard part.