Admit it, you miss your noisy office. This tool re-creates all your coworkers’ annoying sounds

Before shelter-in-place orders were issued across the country and people started working from home en masse, I used noise-cancelling headphones a lot at the office. Whether to block out colleagues talking about their weekend plans, building construction, or a neighbor’s enthusiastic chewing, I sometimes found myself wishing for a quieter place.

But you know what they say: Absence makes the heart grow fonder. At least that seems to be the case for I Miss the Office, an “office noise generator” that plays all the background noise you used to work with back in ye olde office days. (“Close your eyes and imagine you’re in the office. Beautiful, right?” the website says, encouragingly.) Sounds from a printer, the squeak of an armchair, the glurg of the water cooler; the chatter around said water cooler. Remember those? The difference here is that you have some control over the ambient noise. In fact, you create it by adjusting the tool’s settings.