Headphones are NOT a solution to open office plans. When I wear headphones or earbuds, I can block out the sounds, but I become more sensitive to other non-sound cues indicating human activity around me such as movement seen out of the corner of my eye and even air currents. And these become more unnerving with the sound blocked out.
And open office plans are never adopted to "foster collaboration". That's bullshit that management feeds you to mask the real reasons:
1) they save money by packing more employees in the same space
2) it's an easy-to-implement panopticon, letting management keep tabs on you easily
I keep reading how we're "in demand" and how we're hard to find and retain - and then we're treated as disposably as fast-food burger-flippers: you're lucky you even have a job, you ungrateful wretch, so you'd better not complain about all of your efforts to make it nearly impossible to get your job done.
And open office plans are never adopted to "foster collaboration". That's bullshit that management feeds you to mask the real reasons:
1) they save money by packing more employees in the same space
2) it's an easy-to-implement panopticon, letting management keep tabs on you easily