
Are you allowed to listen to music at work (with headphones)? - panjaro
I joined a new office since January. Work isn&#x27;t very exciting but it pays alright although not great pay. However, when I used my headphones to listen to music, the boss said he doesn&#x27;t like it. So, I don&#x27;t listen to music at office. However, I sometimes wish if I had some music. On top of that, my office doesn&#x27;t have any eating area, no kitchen, no fridge, no microwave. No talks besides ones related to work. If something was discussed before, no discussion on same thing again because boss thinks it&#x27;s waste of time. I got yelled at couple of times because there were some bugs. I&#x27;m not sure if I&#x27;m over reacting or the office isn&#x27;t good. We are just 3 in office including boss.
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cphuntington97
Tip of the iceberg. Leave ASAP.

My coworker (a salaried employee) was working on the weekend as a courtesy to
my boss (small business). She saw him wearing headphones and told him to take
them off immediately and that they weren't allowed.

He never came in on the weekend again.

Rules like 'no headphones' are the signal that the boss is suffering from
pathological behavior. This is a very unhealthy environment for the employees.
Leave immediately.

~~~
rajeshmr
+1 I never got my head around to understanding why its hard to understand that
each has his own hacks to being productive. Listening to music is just one of
the things that just works for me. Moving away from my workstation is another
that works great for me when i am stuck with some problem.

But sometimes people frown, its their problem not ours.

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danso
This sounds like a very bad workplace. Not just in terms of perks, but in
management style. _Only_ talk about work while at work? Mmmm....OK, there's
always lunch time. No "discussion on same thing again because boss thinks it's
waste of time"...either you're exaggerating or your boss sounds like a
deluded-YOLO-Steve-Jobs-wannabe. And the ban on headphones seems like a move
out of insecurity, as if your boss can't trust you to stay focused on your job
unless he has the uninterrupted ability to get your attention at all times
during the day.

And getting yelled at over some bugs? If you have a choice, move out, ASAP.

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panjaro
Sometimes I think I'm exaggerating because all he wants is money's worth. I
should be working hard and giving good quality work. But once he explains and
we agree to build features in some way, discussion on the same thing irritates
him. Once I misunderstood what he wanted me to test. Next day he gets angry
and mumbles for 5 minutes and then get's angry because he just wasted 5
minutes saying the same thing. Most of my work is good. There is a senior guy
who is nice person. He's been there for 2 years now but last 3 guys hired in
my place left within 3 months. One was fired, other two left.

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chippy
That sounds like a bad place to work. In better workplaces, and in terms of
headphones policy, wearing them should be allowed, but it should be seen as a
temporary do not disturb sign, and one shouldn't wear them all the time. Being
in a shared office implies communication between the other people and wearing
headphones all the time may interrupt with that.

In practice, what I've seen is that in the mornings with the stand ups and
other meetings and calls with clients nobody wears headphones. Then after
lunch and heads go down, the headphones go on.

~~~
c2h5oh
I don't agree at all.

In an open space office headphones = working. No headphones - temporary you
may disturb me now sign. Anything requiring more than 2 people briefly talking
-> find an office.

And that's why open offices are horrible for devs - you work on your own 75%+
of the time and you get to choose between slowly damaging your hearing or
being distracted and not getting any work done.

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LukeB_UK
That sounds like a toxic environment and my advice would be to move on.

~~~
allengeorge
I'd second this advice. Also, did you notice any warning signs during your
initial interview? If not, you should consider incorporating some questions
that'll feel out the office culture.

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panjaro
No, there weren't any warning signs. Interview went well. The bloke seemed
reasonable.

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ThrustVectoring
>I got yelled at couple of times because there were some bugs.

I'm having trouble finding words strong enough to convey how absolutely
unacceptable that is. I would start interviewing at other companies
immediately. When asked why, cite this. If you can afford being unemployed
(check unemployment eligibility), I'd walk out of the office immediately the
next time your boss yells at you.

"Don't make mistakes" is a completely unreasonable demand. If you want fewer
mistakes, implement better processes and teach people better techniques.

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forgotpasswd3x
That sounds like a really unpleasant work environment. I don't think you're
overreacting.

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aschampion
Your employer is paying for your labor, nothing more. If it doesn't impact
safety, workplace rights or efficient collaboration, it's none of his
business. He doesn't own your time, your sensory experience, or your right to
happiness.

Make that clear and if nothing changes move on.

> I got yelled at couple of times because there were some bugs.

This is entirely the wrong way to deal with bugs. Bugs are not the product of
bad programmers; bugs are symptoms of bad processes. Bugs happen. The response
to them should be preventative, not punitive, i.e., how did this happen, how
can we detect it in the future, is it worth not just detecting but preventing
in the future, and if so, how do we do that systematically. Of course there
will be bad programmers, but environments like this give them the scaffolding
to improve, and if they don't there's much more basis for letting them go than
just, "you made a bug."

~~~
panjaro
I don't consider myself even a good programmer. I get things done and I want
to learn better techniques. However, in the past I have worked in places which
had nice perks, nice team, great process ! However, good thing about this
office is that I waste no time. I have never googled or open any website
except directly related to work.

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ddingus
You don't seem to be overreacting. That's a small, intense, pressure cooker
type environment with a lot of control going on.

If it were me, I would be looking elsewhere.

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jimmydddd
Is your boss over 45? It could just be a generational thing. For context, in
my younger days, I worked in offices where no one ever (literally NEVER) took
a personal phone call unless it was an emergency (this is before mobile phones
and texting). And it still looks strange to me when I see people working at an
office with headphones. (Even though I prefer to work with music).

~~~
kwhitefoot
What does 45 have to do with it? I'll be 60 this year and I often use
headphones in the office, my boss doesn't care as long as I don't drum too
loudly on the desk while listening to Deep Purple, Led Zep, King Crimson,
Scooter, etc., etc.

I mean really, people my age and older invented the personal music player and
so on. You could make a good case for saying that Masaru Ibuka invented the
Walkman at Sony and he was born in 1908, around about the same time as my
grandfather! He was already 70 when it was launched.

~~~
flycaliguy
Older people have more experience in old school workplaces. Check out the new
Alabama Shakes record, you'll dig it.

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joezydeco
Okay, so no headphones. How about playing some music in the open? I've worked
in small workshops were we all built a playlist and everyone put in their
favorite stuff so the music would rotate. Doesn't have to blast, keep it low
so it doesn't bother anyone outside your immediate area.

~~~
panjaro
That'll be a very bad idea. He doesn't even like vibrating phones. One day the
senior guy was told to turn off vibration because he was getting multiple
messages. This senior guy is amazing. He's cool. He says don't feel bad. Boss
gets angry sometimes because may be he is in pressure but he is not a bad
person. This guy really has done great job there but even he gets blamed many
times.

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fotoblur
What if you decided to wear noise canceling headphones to keep you in the flow
of work? Which I actually think listening to music does. Your boss sounds like
a dick-tator or you're working in some government office in communist China.
Leave now.

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floor__
All the places I have worked allowed headphones. I don't think I'd work
somewhere that didn't allow headphones. How do you get in the f'n zone without
some awesome music?

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hojo2
Your workplace sucks.Move on as soon as you can. Seriously.

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digitalzombie
> Are you allowed to listen to music at work (with headphones)?

Really up to the work place I guess. All my work place so far let me listen to
music with headphones...

I'd start looking for another job unless you don't have any good resume
experiences and having a hard time getting a position. Then you would probably
want to stick it out for a year and get friendly with that 1 other worker for
a reference.

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sarciszewski
At every job I've worked that involved programming and working inside of an
office, I was permitted to listen to music on my headphones.

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jeffjose
How someone gets their work done shouldnt be a concern for your boss, as long
as you did it yourself within the reasonable amount of time. Asking you to not
listen to music, just because, sounds unfair and ill-advised.

Sounds like you're new to working, so dont make any opinions about work
culture from this. Workplaces are much much nicer than what you're
experiencing right now.

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firegrind
One office I worked in had a 2 kW sound system and sound proofing. Happy days
!

Currently, the open plan office I work in makes headphones a necessity - for
focussed isolation and for calls.

So you're lacking basic amenities, your colleagues are antisocial, blame and
aggression take the place of thorough testing.

Sounds to me like the office isn't good.

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_fabio
What are you supposed to be doing at said office? Does it involve answering
calls or hearing people talking to you?

~~~
panjaro
Not at all. I add features to existing product.

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hitherejoe
Where I work we have music playing within the workplace through speakers,
we're also free to use headphones if we wish. I don't see why you wouldn't be
allowed to be honest - that seems a little unfair!

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subliminalpanda
I had to invest in noise cancelling headphones solely to use at work because
the office is so damn noisy and so many people lack consideration towards
others.

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zeeed
it would sound like as if there could be office environments for you where you
would feel better. are you coding? how long have you been in this (or a
similar) position?

I would start to ask myself what I'm getting from the job (besides the money)
and why I joined in the first place. maybe make a weighed pro's and con's list
and see how I score.

does that help?

~~~
panjaro
Yeah, I do coding. I think the same. Nothing except money. The code base is
old and I'm advised to follow the same coding pattern, copy paste and make
changes. No new looking or different code allowed even if it is new and great
technique. Boss doesn't want to learn and manage it if I'm gone. The man is
fine during lunch, nice talk but once we get into office, it's pin drop
silence. I once asked what should I do today, what should I work on. He says
"Sip coffee, lay back and enjoy the day. Can you do that? " I was speechless !
:)

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psmech
It seems like a very bad place to work in. If you're coder, you can surely
find something better. Your boss should be left with no workers so that he can
learn it's not the way to run business. This is not even micromanagement. Just
take away the pay and it's pure slavery.

What I'm used to is unlimited holidays, time to work on own projects, as many
breaks and as long as I need. But this is standard way to treat coders in
Dublin (Ireland). Listening to music? Please, we're even given headphones if
we want. I hope your company is just the odd one out. Just move asap.

~~~
panjaro
Wow ! I envy you but you must be really good at what you do !

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sandstrom
Out of curiosity, what country do you live in?

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panjaro
You won't believe it but this office is in Sydney, Australia. When I told this
to some people, they were shocked this kind of office existed here.

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yetanotheracc
Don't walk away. Run.

You are at the very bottom as far as work environments go.

 _I got yelled at couple of times because there were some bugs_

There is no point discussing further or bringing anything up to your
"employer". Just leave.

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maysamsh
I can even use my speakers. THANKS GOD.

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sam_lowry_
If you are in Europe, your company may forbid listening to music in house
rules, to avoid paying a media tax.

~~~
sandstrom
That's insane. I live in Europe and I've never heard of such a rule/law (nor
any company forbidding music).

Even friends in 'stiff' industries, like banking or law, can listen to music
at work.

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MichaelCrawford
Start sending out your resumes and taking interviews.

You're working for a control freak. It will not end well.

