Around 40 percent of all employees in Germany work in an office. Often, however, office buildings do not meet the needs of modern workplace requirements which results in sensory overload, distraction and stress. International studies have shown that office workers perceive subpar acoustics as particularly distracting. On board this year’s MS Wissenschaft, Fraunhofer researchers demonstrate how these performance-degrading influences can be minimized. The magic words: sound masking.