There is nothing fundamentally good about an office phone booth. A sealed-off stall for making private calls is a clunky solution to compensate for the architectural pitfalls of ill-conceived open-plan offices. With not enough attention to built-in acoustical solutions, these offices can be roaringly loud—about 10 decibels higher than what’s ideal for knowledge work, according to a report from Steelcase, the office architecture and furniture giant.