Audio leakage from an office or boardroom is a significant but often overlooked concern. Toronto’s new mayor is taking it seriously. Repairs on walls have been requested to help prevent inadvertent eavesdropping. “In this office you can hear straight through the wall.” …”the issue is that the drywall in the office does not extend above the tiles in the drop ceiling, so sound carries through the open space above the partitions.” said Amanda Galbraith, director of communications in Mr. Tory’s office. A proper TSCM inspection will help reveal such vulnerabilities.
by Elizabeth Church, The Globe and Mail
Toronto’s new mayor, John Tory, came to power on a pledge to build bridges, but inside his city hall office, he’s putting up better walls.
Turns out the divider between Mr. Tory’s boardroom and the office next door – occupied by none other than former mayor Rob Ford – is in need of an upgrade. The walls are “quite thin,” reports a spokeswoman for the mayor’s office and workers were scheduled to come Thursday night to look at better soundproofing.
… before he left the mayor’s suite last year, Mr. Ford reminisced with reporters about the things he overheard when he occupied the same councillor digs he does now under the administrations of former mayors Mel Lastman and David Miller.
“My office is right beside the boardroom so I heard a lot of conversations that I shouldn’t have heard,” he said. “My name was mentioned a few times, too.”
Mr. Ford said he caught the former mayors “off guard” by recounting what he had heard. “That’s politics,” he said.
Mr. Tory’s office has decided to eliminate the potential for such eavesdropping, although it will not say whether there was an incident that led to the construction request.
“In this office you can hear straight through the wall,” said Amanda Galbraith, director of communications in Mr. Tory’s office. “It’s actually both ways. … We want to make sure we can focus and do our work, so the request was put forward.”
Ms. Galbraith said she did not know the cost of the work and could not say who asked for the soundproofing. It was the result of a “discussion that happened in the office,” she said.
Ms. Galbraith said the issue is that the drywall in the office does not extend above the tiles in the drop ceiling, so sound carries through the open space above the partitions. Workers will “complete the wall,” she said.
“We have enough work to do on our own without eavesdropping,” he said.