Yes — often more than in full-time office environments. The hybrid employee has experienced the acoustic quality of working from home (typically near-silence for individual tasks) and will perceive the open-plan office as comparatively acoustically demanding when they return to it. The CBRE 2026 data shows 53% global average office utilisation — meaning the office must compete with home for voluntary attendance. Acoustic pods that match the near-silence quality of a well-equipped home office remove the acoustic disadvantage of office days and provide the collaboration infrastructure that makes in-office time genuinely preferable.