Radio in an open plan office - does the Music get you down?

chin_grin wrote: »

It's nice to know some things never change, it's still like this! :pac:

8 months I had to put up with that. It broke once and I revelled in the silence.

Until the other guys working on the same house as us turned on their giant boombox

In before jaded cynics who say things like "Whats sad about that exactly?" invade the thread, not realising that their shiitty attitudes are what make office jobs suck shiitpipe.

Edit: Fuuck, ye all got here already.

OP, we had the same problem, so we joined forces, bought an mp3 cd player, and take turns listening to albums.
The only person unhappy with this is also the only person who doesn't actually like music at all (same as most people, so). Fuuck her.
One day a week we have to listen to top 40 CDs/Matchbox 20/Paolo Nutini, 80% of the time we get educated.
May not work in a shiitty office atmosphere though.

plys wrote: »

Sounds class...

It really is. Just finished listening to Miles Davis and we're all bumping along to Move D at the moment.
Where's the jazz-hands smiley?
REMEMBER TO LABEL YOUR CDs CORRECTLY!
IN ORDER!
Or get an iPod dock-thingy that accepts mini-phono jacks!

I totally get what the OP is talking about, last month in particular was a fckin nightmare with that "Now youre just somebody I used to know" shyte bein played anywhere between 6 and 10 times a day.
It's ten times worse when you're in an office where women are in the majority (or even worse, in a physical minority but a vocal majority, as is the case in my office.)
Feck all you can do really, I broke the last radio we had but then one of the girls came in with her own bigger, louder one

My last job had radios in the office, was quite a large office so there were about 3 or 4 on the floor. nothing annoys me more than Today FM on one radio, versus I Radio on another, versus one not properly tuned in :mad:
And hearing Matt Cooper's show at half 4 - don't get me started :eek:

Lando Griffin wrote: »

Radios in offices should not be allowled as they are a distraction.

I agree. Besides, music makes creative thinking next to impossible, as it engages the part of the brain you need to do it.

Lando Griffin wrote:

Usually people in the private sector dont have radios, I suppose you do as you like when in the Public sector.

I actually worked in a private company where, at times, there were three radios, tuned on different stations, playing music. All in a very small open plan. These were days when nothing was done, everybody was distracted by the noise.

mojesius wrote: »

At least with a radio station, there is some diversity when the ads/dj/newscaster comes on.

Try working double shifts in a restaurant at christmas time (11am - 1am) with two, yes TWO christmas cds on repeat the entire fcuking time.

Mariah Carey, Slade, Wham, Shakin Stevens and fcuking Band Aid every 90 minutes. Again and again, day after day every christmas for years. Also, because the CDs were made especially for the restaurant around the millennium, there was random outdated crap like Alesha's Attic, Craig David and Justin Trousersnake on there too.

I nearly went postal the last year I worked there when I saw the manager pulling out the christmas cds in mid-November.

Or working brunch - Crap mind-numbing elevator jazz music for 8 hours straight, usually with a hangover.

Give me the radio anytime

Anytime? ANYTIME? REALLY?! Even that time is 1pm and the radio station is BBC Ulster and you have to listen to Hugo fuckin' Duncan. You'd be jamming a christmas CD in the radio within 30 seconds

It is said that music and radio does help productivity in factories. Not sure about offices though. I worked in a factory which piped in 2FM, we had Colm and Jim Jim:mad: followed by Gerry (cokehead) Ryan! The job was bad enough without those tossers annoying the hell out of me. The only reason I never came into work with an Ak47 and killed them ALL is because I couldn't get hold of a gun!

It was the same in my first job, a very long time ago. I hated the job so much that every time I hear some of the songs now. It brings me back to a bad place.

But it could have been worse. In another place they didn't allow radios on the day shift but turned a blind eye on nights. The result was a nightmare of competing stations and CDs. The worst was a guy who played the Wolfe Tones all night. Most of us have heard their most popular songs but their back catalogue has to rate as one of the most tuneless set of songs ever to disgrace the Irish music scene.

But they're not the worst. I was sent to America to work for a while, on the night shift were a bunch of Serbian refugees who pined for the old country and played their traditional 'tunes' all night. 12 terrible hours. I've no idea what the songs were actually about but it sounded something like: 'My children were murdered, my wife has left me and I'm dying of cancer' set to a folk tune that made the Wolfe Tones sound like Pavarotti. No wonder the Balkans are a hotbed of violence and revenge.

So be glad of the same songs repeated over and over again. In twenty years time, it will be a different set of songs repeated endlessly. But at least it won't be the Wolfe Tones or Serbo-Croat music!