Music in the Office 2

[paulcook]

Hey all - hope this isn't inappropriate for an engineering forum, but would love y'alls take.

I've been working at this company for about 4 years. They play music all day, everyday, in the engineering office.

The music plays on a Sonos and is controlled by the hipsters in the marketing department. While their playlist is an improvement on the Top 40 that played for the first year, I don't like it.

*Frankly, I don't like any music playing when I'm working.*

Does your office play music?

Am I being crazy?

Any strong arguments I could use to change management's mind?

Thanks - all thoughts appreciated!

 

[GregLocock]

Try playing a bit of white noise or whatever. Noise cancellation is not perfect and you are hearing what is left, which can be rather odd in terms of both amplitude and phase. Conjecture: Also, the bone conduction path still works, so your ear is trying to figure out why the bone says there is noise and the outer ear doesn't.

Cheers

Greg Locock


New here? Try reading these, they might help FAQ731-376

http://eng-tips.com/market.cfm?

 

[Sparweb]

Check out this old Eng-Tips thread, from pre-COVID times:

https://www.eng-tips.com/viewthread.cfm?qid=410334

The subject probably doesn't come up as much now, since everyone seems to have a headset for Zoom/Teams calls now.
But if using speakerphone was an etiquette issue then, you can guess that music can be a similar issue now.

 

[ObviousHeist]

I can never do any meaningful focused work while I am listening to music. Especially if its not something I want to listen to. Looks like you are going to need some noise cancelling headphones!

 

[CWB1]

I'd wager that most of your coworkers prefer white-noise to somebody else's music, so would find a few willing to support your position before demanding the music end. If I'm doing mindless tasks I put on audiobooks or music, but when I need to concentrate or collaborate I need white-noise.

I'm rather surprised that your marketing dept is the one playing music. Of all people, they should know that stores gave up on music years ago bc they realized that more folks are annoyed by random music than enjoy it. If you have customers coming into your office they're doing you a disservice and pushing away customers.