I’m with Bob. No music is best.
+1
Except everybody gets a choice one day of the week. Bob is taking the place of the previous guy who had Fridays. And he’s not dictating everybody’s choices the rest of the week.
I can’t think of a surer way to diminish teamwork and destroy morale than forcing people to listen to music they hate all day, four days a week. If Bob must choose and opts for Yoko Ono or The Best of Men Without Hats, he’s going to get fragged. I guess that’s a form of teamwork, but it’s going to be awfully hard on the furniture.
If there must be music, cycle through several genres several times a day, and allow for quiet interludes for Bob.
I’m curious about the actual situation rather than the hypothetical, because (subjectively) distasteful music really is one of those things that will drive people slowly mad.
While I agree with Monday’s take, if I were Bob, I’d follow Tuesday’s advice and find something inoffensive that I could accept as music.
I’d rather deal with some bland background music than be the guy ruining office music every Friday.
I vote for Monday, Monday and The Sounds of Silence.
For a long time, under similar headphone strictures, I sat next to someone who played music, fairly quietly, that I found mostly either mildly annoying or merely tolerable. I didn’t complain, at least not to her, even when time rolled around for hours and hours of execrable Christmas music each day. But oh how I appreciated every single day that she had off work.
The rule is “Your day, your choice,” and that’s Bob’s choice. To criticize is to open your own choices up to debate.
I voted for Monday, because under the existing system that makes the most sense, but really the background music should be ditched altogether. And headphone users usually can’t hear anything else unless it’s a disruptive shout, so they’re out too.
Silence is golden.
My vote also. Fortunately, it’s not an issue where I work, since everyone else wears headphones and I can work in blissful silence. So, yeah, Bob’s day, Bob’s choice.
I work in an industrial environment, not an office type workplace. The stated managerial reason for banning individual music systems and headphones is primarily one of safety. All staff on the production floor wear OSHA mandated hearing protection, usually foam plugs but some people like me prefer the padded muffs. In spite of the hearing protectors, we have to be able to communicate, hear alarms, dodge forklifts and be able to audibly monitor machine functions. Correct or not, management’s position is that is that headphones and earbuds compromise safety and or hearing protection across the board. No exceptions are permitted by their insurance. I attempted to use a pair of PELTOR _ LISTEN ONLY protectors that would let me plug in a music source for my personal enjoyment, no joy. Truthfully, management would prefer to ban music entirely from the floor but this is a difficult policy for them to enforce. We are having tremendous difficulty in attracting and maintaining adequate staffing levels. Relaxing the music policy is seen as a way to aid recruiting and retention. Consequently, the current (winked at) policy is to permit radios on the floor and to treat us as adults. Each area sets their own music mix and as long as the work continues SAFELY and efficiently, there’s no worries. We’re strongly encouraged to settle any issues on own own because if too much static comes up the line, management can pull all the radios for a few months as a reminder that music on the floor is a perk, not a right. They’ve done it before and they’re not far from doing it again.
The specific area in which I work, we get along pretty well and our musical tastes are similar enough that there’s no real conflict. My blues heavy, classic rock mix seems to be tolerated by most. Unfortunately, one of our regulars had to drop out on medical leave, probably not to return. (it’s a very sad situation and maybe worthy of it’s own thread.) That’s when “Bob” showed up. Bob is a veteran out here, being employed as a “floater” for 30+ years, is certified on most of the machines on the floor and moves around as directed by management according to daily production requirements. Bob is a decent enough guy, quiet, listens and communicates well, inoffensive and very competent in his job. He’s the kind of guy who follows directions well but has no interest in driving the bus himself. He’s also the kind of guy who stimulates protective instincts in some and predatory schmuckhole instincts in others, like Thursday.
Frankly, Bob would prefer the music be shut off entirely but he knows that’s not going to happen. As compromise, he suggested shutting it off on Fridays only. On Fridays, Bob does double duty as a service tech and has to occasionally respond to a tech requests from various machine operators. He has to keep an ear on the paging system to do this. I like having music playing while I work and I’m not really all that picky about what’s played. I’m pretty much Tuesday in this situation but I agree that Monday has the morale high ground. Thursday is pretty much steamrolling Bob (and the rest of us to a lesser degree) over the music being played in our area because if we cause a fuss, management will just pull the plug on the music across the entire floor and our group will get the blame.
Ditto.
My music lover played a tolerable station, BUT she had a particular fondness for “Black Water” by the Doobie Brothers, which was played at least once a day. She would then crank it up and sing along. So I started putting antifreeze in her coffee and now it is quiet here once again.
This. While I prefer no music, that’s not really the crux of the issue. It’s about his right to exercise his choice like everyone else.
Strikes me you had a stupid music policy to begin with. Someone is always going to be unhappy. (although I’m with Monday on this).
And if you work in a company of grown ups, then you can cope with the odd person wearing earphones from time to time.
I work in an agency - music is basically compulsory. But we have a spotify account which everyone has access to and everyone can add music they like whenever they feel like it. Rules are:
- If someone says it’s too loud and they’re trying to concentrate, turn it down.
- If you’re wearing earphones, be aware of people around you. If we need to shout at you to get your attention, your headphones are coming off.
- If the music is really obnoxious, then at least ten people will tell you to knock it off.
Could you switch his day to Monday? Strikes me that a quiet Monday is more bearable than a quiet Friday, when we need to get the weekend party started.
Monday is recognizing the most important thing: The workers are there to work. The others are being idiots, forcing their music on others.
Monday is right (and I have nothing in particular against music in the workplace). Bob gets his choice one day a week, just like everyone else, and “silence” is a perfectly valid choice.
Music in an office environment is awful, especially if it’s creative work. I do not understand how people doing knowledge work can be productive with music playing. I really like music and maybe the problem for me is that when there is music playing I actively listen to it, taking cycles away from anything else that requires my brain. I can’t tune it out.
Once I had a summer job building kids’ playhouses and we had the radio on all day, which I didn’t mind, because it doesn’t require a lot of concentration to shoot nails into wood and spray stain onto boards.
Bob’s day, Bob’s choice. If he wants to be edgy, here’s a great list of tunes he could play.
This is really the only correct answer. It’s not a matter of music, but a matter of respect. Why is “none” such a big deal, when if he chose nothing but South Park songs or Zamfir’s greatest pan flute hits, that would be perfectly fine?
I’ve personally worked in both sorts of environments; they have their advantages and disadvantages, IMO. The one with music was a manufacturing operation, and they just played the easy-listening station over the PA at a fairly low level- in general, it tended to add something akin to white noise to moderate the ambient racket from an open floor plan and the actual manufacturing noises. But at the same time, hearing “Barbie Girl” by Aqua is pretty distracting when you’re trying to figure out how to code changes to the company’s work order costing process.
Most places have been silent; the big problem there is that you hear EVERYTHING. I’m one of those people who kind of needs a certain background level of racket to concentrate; without it, I start hearing random drips and dogs barking 3 streets over, etc… So no noise whatsoever isn’t really my thing either.
Of the choices given, Monday wins easily.
But the idea of forcing music on people is seriously wrong - especially in a time when personal music choices (via earbuds) are so easily available.
If the objection is that some will play their music loud enough to compromise safely, I suppose you could make a policy that if you show evidence of this (e.g. you are called but don’t respond) you suffer appropriate sanction (loss of music rights / fired). It’s tempting to believe that adults could work this out.