Reply to: Music in the office

[LondonManc]

last place I worked at had a resident DJ

You were working at the Ministry of Sound HTHBIDI

[Fronttoback]

Is he the American First Nation? Or the cowboy?

I'm not sure what you mean by that babe, but im perma tanned up because I live on the med. So I'm probably like the feathered chap babe.

[SueEllen]

And a picture of Fronttoback out on the town with his colleagues emerges, love the headdress

Is he the American First Nation? Or the cowboy?

[zeitghost]

Siliconix used to have music playing over the tannoy when I started there.

Even now, all these years later, hearing "Walking on the Moon" creates an uncontrollable urge to kill.

Happily that stopped and individual earphone were provided for those who wished to listen.

However, coding on a HP200 system in the QA lab was a bit trying with a ghetto blaster playing on the opposite bench.

Neither of which compared to the joy of listening to Mr Awkward's favourite Talk radio station in Cwmbran whilst writing endless 6303 assembler.

After the nth play of the 3 little piggies advert on said channel, I was almost uncontrollably homicidal.

[vetran]

Well done on alienating yourself from the rest of the office so soon!

What you should have done is organise an office outing to an 80s club one Friday.

You just can't teach this stuff, you just can't,...

And a picture of Fronttoback out on the town with his colleagues emerges, love the headdress

[Fronttoback]

Well done on alienating yourself from the rest of the office so soon!

What you should have done is organise an office outing to an 80s club one Friday.

You just can't teach this stuff, you just can't,...

[GJABS]

Oh dear....

Nice photoshop. And you even got the make of plane the same as mine (a "Jabiru")
#attentionToDetail

That crash was a funny one. Nobody injured as they tried to take off from a beach:

[greenlake]

This might well result in a shorter contract than it would otherwise be, but at least I tried to persuade them.

Oh dear....

[MarillionFan]

Going out on a limb here, but I guess you were hanging out with the Marxist crowd at uni while smoking pot. Fair play to you.

Look, he's got his own plane, he's not scrabbling around for airmiles.

[clearedforlanding]

No, a regular IT job, not a call centre.
You have a good point, and I did notice. It is not very diplomatic to call someone "just" a anything if you want to foster a good relationship with them. But I am the bigger man, so let it pass.



I wouldn't go as far as say "should".
According to a strict capitalist principle you could argue that their mistake in having this music is something that should be punished in the open market. But in fixing (or trying to fix) this problem I am arguably providing an additional service to them, which will (might) be rewarded through more respect/money/contract duration etc in the future.

And there is an opportunity cost of walking out of a contract, with a minimum of a couple of weeks out of contract, and likely more.

Going out on a limb here, but I guess you were hanging out with the Marxist crowd at uni while smoking pot. Fair play to you.

[GJABS]

Do you work in a call centre?

If someone said 'You're just a contractor' to me I'll tell them to **** off.

No, a regular IT job, not a call centre.
You have a good point, and I did notice. It is not very diplomatic to call someone "just" a anything if you want to foster a good relationship with them. But I am the bigger man, so let it pass.

Jeez. So many people on here don't really understand this contracting lark, do they? You're there to bill not to moan about or influence company policy.
If you couldn't stand it you should have walked out, otherwise leave well enough alone

I wouldn't go as far as say "should".
According to a strict capitalist principle you could argue that their mistake in having this music is something that should be punished in the open market. But in fixing (or trying to fix) this problem I am arguably providing an additional service to them, which will (might) be rewarded through more respect/money/contract duration etc in the future.

And there is an opportunity cost of walking out of a contract, with a minimum of a couple of weeks out of contract, and likely more.

[sasguru]

Jeez. So many people on here don't really understand this contracting lark, do they? You're there to bill not to moan about or influence company policy.
If you couldn't stand it you should have walked out, otherwise leave well enough alone

[original PM]

I agree mostly with this if you want to listen to your tunes use headphones

[MarillionFan]

An update today,

This morning I spoke directly to the head of the team who are most keen on having music, presenting them with some quotes from web pages output by a Google on the subject. Some positive, some negative.
In summary some people react well to working around music, others poorly. I am definitely in the latter category.

Anyway I must have had an impact, because the music stopped, and call me paranoid I got the impression people were talking about me behind my back. I definitely heard someone say "who's GJABS?"

Later in the afternoon the boss called me into a private meeting, where he gave me a right telling off for discussing the issue with other people without going through him first. As he had requested yesterday.
He said "You're just a contractor - you don't have the right to interfere in company procedures".
But all I did was discuss the issue - I didn't tell them what to do, only what effect it would have on my productivity, and that probably of several others.
The truth of the matter is that I didn't think he would present the case assertively enough if just left to him - his "solution" being to have me work from home a lot, which is not ideal.

Anyway the boss said that they were going to carry on playing the music.

This might well result in a shorter contract than it would otherwise be, but at least I tried to persuade them.

Do you work in a call centre?

If someone said 'You're just a contractor' to me I'll tell them to **** off.

[clearedforlanding]

But at least I'm no longer a nobody

Who knows what will happen. It will be discussed in a management meeting next week.

The other thing I had said to them is that I have worked in around 50 offices over the past 20 years, and not one of them had played music. And that if playing music was found to be overall beneficial to worker productivity I think a few of them would have caught on by now.

So a popular worker then?

It seems to be in Spearmint Rhino's