Yes, I worked in a small office 2 weeks ago, and every conversation made it into my ears. Now I'm in an open office with 60+ people and it's like sitting in a fast food restaurant, noisy chatter that I can tune out. If there's some conversation particularly loud/annoying I just put on my headphones. It's not that bad, but I have the ability to tune it out, and I feel other types of people can't do that.