[AstralStorm]

Making open office essentially a nunnery never works. We tried many times.

If you tie salary to noise levels people will quit. Bonus points if you benefit people for being team players, talk about conflicting priorities.

About the only half workable solution is isolation headphones - like for shooting ranges, or earphones for those who prefer it. Enhance online communication too. (For our purposes, Mattermost or Slack work well, with code review tools second.)

[d0paware]

Yeah Peltor earmuffs are about the only thing that have worked for me. And you're right, a salary or fine is never going to work out practically - just wishful thinking on my part :)