"What is your opinion regarding allowing employees
to wear earphones to privately listen to music or T.V. channels while they work as opposed
to listening to the music we provide over loudspeakers?" K.S. Missouri "What is your opinion regarding allowing employees
to wear earphones to privately listen to music or T.V. channels while they work as opposed
to listening to the music we provide over loudspeakers?" K.S. Missouri
THE INDUSTRY ADVISOR
MUSIC TO WHOSE EARS??
By Gene Levine - www.genelevine.com
Wouldn’t our managerial lives be so much happier if employees didn’t
complain all the time? Probably forgetting that at one time no music was played in your
factory your employees are now apparently dissatisfied with your musical selections and
want to select whatever they want to listen to. Their suggestion may be valid. Let me
explain.
What would your mental state be if the radio in your car only had one station, playing music you strongly disliked and you had no way of ever turning the radio off? In my opinion, that’s what many of today’s employees feel when they are forced to listen to the music is blaring from factory loudspeakers. Attitude surveys taken in this industry show amazing similarities as to the factors employees complain about most. Normally, highest on their list of dissatisfactions is the air-conditioning, which is, "either too hot or too cold." Following closely are dissatisfactions regarding the music they are compelled to listen to. When you reflect on that item - music - I’m sure you’ll recall times in your life when, you wished you could turn off music someone else was listening too.
Years ago, Frederick Herzberg in his "Hygiene Theory" said, "The opposite of a dissatisfaction is not satisfaction but rather the absence of that one dissatisfaction." Extending his thinking to your question it appears that your employees take issue with the kinds of music you are offering and have suggested or asked for your allowing them to bring in their own "radios" so they can listen to whatever they want to listen to. I’m in favor of it with one caveat and that is that the personal radios are earphoned personal radios - the kind that only the listener can hear.
Now, I’ll first discuss musical tastes and later on I’ll cover the other things that can be listened to such as talk shows, T.V. soap operas, etc. My experience has shown that music is a very personal thing and what we think is good music is actually offensive to someone else. The Sinatra songs I like to listen to is "torture music" to my youngest son Joey. Could it be that’s why there are so many radio stations?
If you think about it, some deeply religious employees would find some contemporary lyrics offensive. I believe given the choice, every employee in your workforce would rather listen to their own cultural music selections rather than the music constantly offered over loudspeakers.
Regarding all other listening opportunities, I have heard many of the arguments regarding the hazards of allowing the use of personal radios. Among the strongest are, "Some of the people listening to these radios not only listen to music, but listen to soap operas and they can’t pay attention to their work and listen to the radios at the same time." "It’s dangerous to allow people to listen to radios because if we have an emergency and have to communicate to them they won’t hear us fast enough." Finally, "OSHA won’t allow it." In my opinion, the first two of those arguments are invalid and the one regarding an OSHA violation is totally erroneous.
If you can drive a car and listen to the radio and arrive at your destination safely you can understand how futile that logic is. Just as it is hard to prove that listening to the car radio contributes to automobile accidents and diminished driving skills, it is difficult to prove that personal-earphoned radios contribute to industrial accidents, substandard performance or quality. Once mastered, operating a machine, like driving a car is dull and some employees would like to break that boring scenario with music or soap operas. Can you read and listen to the radio or the T.V. at the same time? Our children always do.
My experience has shown that allowing these personal-earphoned radios actually contributes to improved morale. Improved morale generally improves production, attendance, quality and profits. So . . .
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