The implication that open offices are fine as long as you are using noise-cancelling headphones irks the hell out of me. If a working environment is noisy/distracting to the point that you can't be productive without having to rely on headphones, then there is a fundamental problem with your environment.
People should not HAVE to do buy/use something just to be productive. It's downright disrespectful to expect your workers to just "deal with the noise in a professional manner".
People should not HAVE to do buy/use something just to be productive. It's downright disrespectful to expect your workers to just "deal with the noise in a professional manner".