As a few people have pointed out it is all about the co-workers.
I got threatened with the sack for using, in order:
MX Blues
MX Browns
The same RD as everyone else (starting to see the pattern?)
Torpes
Apple scissor switch board (is the pattern becoming clearer?)
I don't bottom out, as a rule, and other people have commented on how quiet my typing is compared to the clatter of RDs being beaten to death that is the normal office sound nowadays.
All of this while the complainer conducted speaker phone conversations, bellowed across the office at any time they liked for an hour at a time, slammed every door and drawer they ever encountered, etc, etc. More important the whole desk cluster I shared with this person would shake like an earthquake as they tried to drive the keys on a RD through the desk.
Basically, some people are hypersensitive to any noise that they are not making and completely unaware of any noise they make themselves.
Also, basically, some people become so expert about complaining they love to demonstrate their mad skills at being whining children, The point is that with such mad skills the bosses learn that it is easiest to give way to these individuals at the first sign of a new campaign of complaints to cover up for the under-performance of the whiner.
If you are the boss in your area then my suggested challenge to you is to find someone who deserves a reward and buy them a Blue board as that reward. See how you react to it being used and see what complaints you get. If they come from people you know are good workers who are really being affected then you know it's a bad choice for your environment. If the only complaints are from people who you know are trying to cover for their own inadequate personality and incompetence then you have learned two very valuable lessons (and can build the list of who to keep and who to dump at the next cut back, possibly thereby building higher overall productivity).
Once you show the workplace that you think good keyboards are things worth having and to be treated as rewards and marks of competence you may well find that any complaints fade away.
Once you set up the environment, and if their are not *real* complaints, then you, and your *good* workers will be free to use whatever you like. I'd suggest the cost of a nice board (don't be tight, get a decent board) given away to a good worker will be a very cheap investment if it works out and a cheap learning experience if it ends up with the receiver of the board taking it home and a office rule about keyboard noise being developed.
