@CalamityJane,
Quote:You like classical music, your co-workers might not and have to listen to yours or vice versa you'd have to listen to rap music from your co-workers. Where does it end?
I've aways had a private office, so my radio never bothered anyone else. But I was at work, and doing work, with that radio on when I was alone in my office.
But I know other people who've listened to music, also classical music, through headphones while they've worked in a cubical. It depends on the kind of work you do, what kind of music you're listening to, and whether the music would distract you from what you're doing--for many people, like me, it enhances their work when they are writing something, and it blocks out other background sounds in an open office environment which might really be distracting. It also depends on the work environment you're in, whether it becomes an issue.
When I was in school, I hated working on something, like a term paper, in a library because it was too quiet--I couldn't think well.
And I don't think I could ever work in a cubical, or open office environment, without listening to music on headphones, because I think the background noises of other people talking, and phones ringing, would drive me crazy and I wouldn't be able to concentrate.
But, that's me.
And I hate having time to kill at work--I prefer to be continuously busy--doing work.
I also think you and I might be thinking of different types of offices, so we have a different frame of reference.
My mother worked in a university department office, and shared that office with two or three other secretaries. They had a radio news station on all the time in the background. They were generally pretty busy, but, if they didn't have exams or papers to type, or things to file, or copies to make, or students to help, or phones to answer, they did have a little free time, and they'd sit and talk to each other, or look at a newspaper, or read a book, or go on the internet. They never took routine coffee breaks, and most of the time ate lunch at their desks, and even stayed late when they had to, so they were entitled to relax a little when they could.
And the work environment osso was talking about is yet a different kind of situation.
Some offices don't have a continuous flow of work all of the time for every employee.Sometimes you have to wait for whatever you need to do your job--wait for someone to deliver something to you, wait for supplies, wait for customers or clients, wait for someone to get back to you about something, wait for a meeting, etc.
But, if you are talking about the type of office where there is always a pile of work, and absolutely no reason not to be doing that work continuously, then you'd be right in expecting people to be doing that work all the time and nothing else. I'm not really familiar with that kind of environment.
And I'm not familiar with having to deal with the internet use problem, but I can see why it might be necessary to either block personal use altogether or limit it to a specific time-frame--like the duration of a coffee break, and in lieu of an out-of-the-office coffee break.Aren't people entitled to coffee breaks?
But, with Arella Mae, even if she was on the internet too much, shouldn't they first have told her to curb it, or stop it, and waited to see if she did, instead of suddenly mentioning it as a reason for why they were firing her?
