Getting an Earful: Using Earbuds, Headphones, and AirPods at Work My dad wore the behind the ear type of hearing aids. I didnt even know that was a thing. This is not intended as legal advice; for more information, please click here. When Im wearing the earbuds, Im able to keep a slight bit of my attention listening for cues that someone needs me. But is it a good idea? Im not saying I agree with this, but I think they see taking out earbuds as a lot easier and less showy. The humanity! Its true that many many people work front desks, but probably most people dont? This employee was quite upset when I reminded him that we had just discussed it. Does he have a migraine and removal of the offending headphones would send him over the edge of tolerance to pain? Headphone Policy at Work and the Best Headphones for Noisy Offices, Manage Volume Only You Should Hear Your Headphones, Dont Let Headphones Interfere With Office Communication, Never Wear Headphones During Conversations or Meetings, If you require deep concentration, try listening to ambient sounds. Its rude to wear headphones when other people are talking to you. Yeah, at my workplace the IT staff I interact with most are the front-facing help desk, so my first reaction was Sure, of course they cant wear headphones!. I dont care if someone is listening with headphones or not, I just start talking. In certain situations that can put them in harms way. Thats my place. employers usually. Ughhh, I shouldve just waited for this comment and agreed instead of writing mine. This is not a hill to die on. Im sure this LW would find me a very frustrating employee. If the answer is no, then running to HR is an extreme response. Thats how you get angry, frustrated, disengaged team members. They would still have to take the earbuds out just like taking headphones off. . This means theyre all going to need that moment of transitioning their attention/finishing a line or thought, or some people might be so focused it takes them a moment to acknowledge the sudden white noise in the background is actually someone talking to THEM and not just background noise. You still need to be available to others in the workplace. It's awkward when someone approaches them for. I was expecting to be interrupted at any moment because it was a part of my job. Bc having to have music playing would just replace one source of distraction with another for me. Theres a reason librarians shush you! check that the IT staff really are responding in good time to the incoming tickets i use the bose ones and they work great! This seems like a normal/fast timeline. Its not when the company rule is that headphones are fine. Like wow, what other arbitrary bs rules are you going to start implementing cause ~you just dont like it~. Understanding your reasoning behind a new policy helps you communicate its purpose and answer any questions about it. HR is always the right place to go for this kind of issue. This means that women are underdiagnosed factors such as gender norms make symptoms easier to mask or dismiss. This person has unrealistic expectations. I would say it depends on the branch of IT that is being managed: ticketed support system = no headphones or earbuds, you need to be interruptible at all times (sorry, thats the nature of the job); vs software developer = headphones because you need to concentrate on not writing code thatll need 87 patches before it works properly! Let her deal with it in whatever way she is dealing with it. And no, I would not remove my headphones/headset, WHICH by the way are also used for online meetings so there. at least with over-the-ear headphones everyone can see that they need to get your attention first. yes, as an IT employee, the real issue is why are there so many people coming to the desk when things like IM and ticketing exist. Provide key information, such as when it is or isnt appropriate to wear headphones, whether it matters if people choose headphones or earbuds, and advice for how to best utilize headphones for deep, focused work. There would be a mutiny and certainly an ouster of the CIO. Just because someone is in it support or customer service, it doesnt mean always immediately immediately available, no exceptions. Rolleyes. Arguments for Headphones at Work People who regularly use headphones (or more commonly earphones/earbuds) while working will tell you that there are numerous benefits to doing so. It is entirely possible to be productive in an office with noise around you and Im a little taken aback that people seem to think that headphones are natural part of the office when in fact they are a perk. I think a lot of us are confused about it. Sorry, should have been clearer. Headphones versus Ear Buds. I Don't Want My Employees to Wear Headphones | Inc.com There are many contexts in which it might not be appropriate to wear headphones at work: Your company or boss prohibits them; You work in a service position, where . I dont know how I could work in a loud office without them. Let people find what works for them. Banning headphones is kind of a weird rule that comes across really micromanagey. More work, less noise: headphones in the workplace . Disconnect unused devices from the headphones. Either you need to be 100% instantly available (no earbuds or headphones) or you dont. Well, were digging in the weeds. I started heel-thudding heavily when I walked up to him and while its a source of amusement for his cubicle mates to hear me clomping up an elephant sporting three inch heels, I dont startle my friend any more and everyone is happy. Your comment is rude as are MANY of your comments. You are different, they are different. Using headphones or earbuds sends a clear sign youre not listening. We have one supervisor who, like you, feels awkward asking people for their attention, or, god forbid, having to wait or come back at a later time. When I approached him, I startled him over and over, didnt matter how I did it calling him name, knocking on his cube wall, tapping his arm. PDF Employee Cell Phone Policy - Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Forget the headphones, I want to know what the expectations are if the employee is working on support issues A, B, and C and someone approaches them about support issue D. Are they expected to drop A, B, and C and start working on D? Doesnt necessarily warrant a chat with the IT guy (he does his chatting while at his customers desks fixing their issues! Yeah, in this day and age no one uses headphones while working. I cant compare them to the more expensive/better known ones as I have not used those. I wear noise cancelling headphones sometimes to block out my colleagues chatting, or their legitimate work calls (were a telephone based casework agency so there are a lot of calls every day). Signs, Labels, Tags and Safety Products, Open Ears: Reducing the Threat of Earbuds in the Workplace. Frankly, if someone uses a brush off dont want to talk about it sort of thing if I inquire if everything is alright, digestive issues are the very FIRST place my mind goes. But I love mine and they have helped me a lot. I cant wear them because I have eczema in one ear. This is a really important point! Im wondering would said manager have an issue with bone conduction headphones too? Can you ask the marketing guys to tone down the GOT off-topic chatter or let me wear them for the couple of hours a day when they tend to go full-throttle? Or even Can we find a way to signal approachability that still allows me to block out background noise?. Our management has the same reasoning you do, and say that we shouldnt feel entitled not to be interrupted at any time for a question from anyone, which is super frustrating. - Craine. Man all this talk of headphones makes me wish Id brought mine, but Im more or less on the verge of phasing out earbuds cause of a skin condition in my ears ): That aside, Im not sure why OP didnt outright rule both outside of phone calls (unless OP prefers they use speaker or the handheld). Even if they are perfectly normally shaped, if you have TMJ the ear buds will hurt. Also, low-end noise-cancelling headphones are easier to find than low-end noise-cancelling earbuds, for those on tight budgets. LW, dont be that boss. Im not going to be rude, but Im a professional adult doing my best to get my work done in an extremely unpleasant environment, not some bad little kid in school. The completion and signing is able manually or via a trusted solution e. g. PDFfiller. At least headphones or earbuds can provide background noise to drown it all out or at least give the brain something else to focus on, like music, and I see no reason unless you are an in person customer facing employee (like at the DMV) that you shouldnt be able to use this method to cope. I had to be aware of what was going on around me and to be ready for any customers, vendors, or board members who may show up. I can tell you that many, many people find earbuds incredibly uncomfortable and even painful, as I oversee the PPE we use. I am EMPHATICALLY opposed to open office spaces. We dont know exactly what words were exchanged, we got a very high-level summary of the gist of what happened from one persons point of view. That is quite a long time for an email when youre raring to go. Instead of wearing them on top of your head, you wear them around the back of your neck, and the headphones clip over your ears from behind, so it puts less pressure on the top of your ears which are supporting the glasses. Its just basically never a good idea to assume that someone owes you their immediate attention. I worked Help Desk for 3 years People asked for help by calling in or sending an email. All of these products are available on Amazon, and we made sure to include a budget option for each category. Ill act like a normal person and walk over to her., (Personal opinion anyone should wear what they want. It irritates me no end that my spouse has taken to wearing headphones, all day, every day, but could not articulate exactly why. Particularly, if there wasnt a conversation about it. Friday face-off: should you let your staff wear headphones at work? I wear over ear headphones at work all the time. Its easy to see how they are a nessacary tool for IT to do their job. I work in an office with a super-strict no headphones, earbuds, nothing of any kind rule, and I just want to say that it SUCKS. The best thing you can do is be patient, and offer nonjudgmental support if appropriate. Yeah dont get me wrong, thats how we use them in our open office: they literally mean, Im really trying to pretend were not in an open office, please dont interrupt me / pretend Im not here / just go away k thanx. For that reason, we prefer to use big bulky visible ones. Its also important that we be seen as accessible to the teams we serve, and Im concerned that having big headphones on your ears is compromising that. The skin where ear pods touch will get inflamed and break down. And is a red flag that would make me wary of deeper issues. In this post, well provide clear workplace guidelines about when and how to best utilize headphones for the office environment. The reasons for introducing the ban are: * Wearing headphones make employees seem unapproachable. A heads-up on Slack that theyre dropping by in a few to touch base about XYZ? Headphones would seem to be perfectly appropriate for that role. Not only does that set up a very adversarial power dynamic, but you miss out on the collective brain power of a lot of really smart, talented people who might have information you dont have that would affect your decisions that way. This is incredibly unreasonable. From the title I thought this was going to be about wanting to intervene. So I need my noise-cancelling headphones and my white noise app to block it out. Ive had front desk jobs and, even with ADHD, I can do them without noise-blockers because its my job to seek and welcome interruption. When someone is wearing headphones at my work, I gently wave at the side of them to get their attention without touching them or scaring them. >Ws'Gy8cT{p>:0K=*R=,RXbL\L76,~8X8IdWcqvqO%owFZ6POT>6 alw|KsC7W[oUJ x)#/IAS>n9$0s1!sHC"r!q9 8DD!"b!! The next time you complain that your HR team is taking too long with an important problem remember that it could be because of incompetence or it could be because part of their time is spent dealing with someone is mad because they were told to use earbuds not headphones by someone that cant wait 10 seconds for acknowledgment. I would be pretty annoyed at this. so many people will start having neck and hand issues from the poor ergonomics of laptops. Workers who are listening to their earbuds cant hear whats going on around them. Plus if theyre wired, you end up with a bulky battery pack attached to the cord (Im not sure where they put it on wireless pairs). If you fail to do that when you boss clarifies that the no headphone rule is meant to be immediate, then that failure is on you, rather than discrimination by your boss. If OP had just said I feel like the headphones are a signal not to interrupt they could have been reassured as to the contrary or opened up a win-win dialogue. Rude? Take care.). And if you lose interest, it's always easy to unsubscribe with a single click. So, Im not surprised that the manager was then surprised by an employee who made a passive aggressive challenge to the rule without attempting a professional conversation. And because manager is being ridiculous considering headphones/headsets are also used for online meetings and such. I think the LW had waited 2 weeks for a formal job offer, after having been informally offered the job. So creepy. Its one thing if you want to cultivate a certain professional presentation in your department, but unless you are subsequently sending them home and/or giving them a stipend to immediately update their possessions, expecting same-day compliance is really over the top. Crafting a workable, livable cellphone usage policy | LegalZoom Headphones are Not Hearing Protection - Jobs that require hearing protection such as noise-canceling headphones should not allow workers to substitute music headphones or use earbuds inside of the hearing protection. (And believe me, you do NOT want to try to have a conversation with me sans hearing aids, unless you have a very loud, clear voice or are a big fan of having to repeat everything 2 or 3 times. They take my headphones away and Im going to find a more reasonable employer. If you cant point to a serious, concrete reason for this rule, itll appear arbitrary and youll burn up any goodwill you had with those employees and be in danger of losing them quickly. Unless the headphones are at a detriment to their productivity, I wouldnt pick this one as your battle. In addition to using headphones to sometimes just help me concentrate on other work, sometimes I use them do to actual work related things like participate in skype calls and watch work-related videos (mandatory training, etc.). He probably thought it was okay to wear them for the rest of the day until he could go out and get a pair of earbuds; thats what I would have done. If you have evidence that they cant hear people, you could impose a one-ear-0nly rule. 1) as a customer of IT support, I would be really peeved if Id opened a ticket for something critical, they started working on it, and were then forced to stop working on my ticket because someone else had walked up to their desk and they have to be interruptible at all times. I think that even saying its a physical therapy appointment would invite more questions, especially if the boss is worried this will be a workmens comp issue for a repetitive motion injury, or that the company should provide some sort of accommodation like a standing desk or special chair. Maybe not right, but what can one do. Its what Ive okd for my team. People very quickly lose interest in my physio appts! I think shes overthinking this reaction. On the outside it seems obvious to everyone else that she should just LEAVE, and it can be mind boggling why shed still want to talk to him.its something that is impossible to understand until youve been through it. If you really understand the abuse cycle then you would know, NCO or no NCO that this type of thing is common. But leave her personal life alone. Going to HR is the right place to go. Me, I just turn up the volume until they eventually go their separate ways. Work doesnt have to be a nest of distractions either. No one should have to wear earbuds if they cause you pain. Based on the note (and I might be wrong) it seems, manager had a conversation with employee. The fib is the price they pay for prying into your business (if they ask). Its about the quality of work and its about the quality of life the people who are doing the work have at the office. Was coming to say exactly that for me, its a very deliberate signal, please only interrupt me if its important because Im concentrating. Sometimes it takes half an hour to get back into the zone, when Im working on a tough patch, and thats not always obvious to folks who just need me for a second.
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