Slashdot Mirror
Music While Programming?
BubbaDoom writes "In our cubicle-ville, we have programmers intermixed with accounting, customer support and marketing. As programmers, it is our habit to put on our headphones and listen to our portable music players to drown out all of the noise from everyone else. The boss recently sent an email just to the programmers demanding that we do not use our music players at work because he thinks it distracts us from our jobs and causes us to make mistakes. Of course, we've explained to him that prattle from the other people is much, much more distracting, but he insists his policy is the right one. What is the Slashdot community's experience with music at work for programmers?"
If "fairness" is the real reason, or if the policy is "no headphones," then just bring in a boom box so everyone can enjoy the music.
Thank you, Edward Snowden.
"Arguments from authority are worthless." —Carl Sagan
Maybe you were DISTRACTED by the MUSIC.
So what you're saying is that the OP should get the boss to add free-roaming tigers to the cubicle landscape to provide the 10% distraction?
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Huh?
Ah.
If you're unhappy with your boss, you can always go to his boss and complain.
And if your boss is the company's owner, then you'll have to go to his wife to complain.
I assume, since he's a boss, that he has a private office ? If that's the case, offer him to come do some cerebral, non-social work (not on the phone, more like writing a report or something) for a half day in one of your cubicles, and judge for himself if he really thinks he wouldn't have worked better being isolated from the chatter.
No kidding! My company refused to move me until I made the facilities woman come over and stand in my cube and listen to Chatty McSnotsucker gabbing about her latest cleansing diet and the quality of her shits when the laxatives kick in, all the while trying to clear her sinuses from a chronic post-nasal drip evidently made of horse-glue. She lasted three minutes before she left my cube gagging. I got my transfer.
"While I can accept that music would be less distracting that office chatter, I simply don't understand the concept that music is better than silence."
Dude, you have not heard the voices inside my head. Otherwise, you would see clearly the point being made.
BTW, here's my fave: http://somafm.com/
After a few bars of Oklahoma! ... you'll get your music players back.
When questioned, explain that it helps you concentrate on the task at hand. Remind him that IBM hired musicians for the first programmers.
The society for a thought-free internet welcomes you.
I find that coding/hacking becomes more awesome while listening to techno music. It is essential when you are trying to pwn Gibson Supercomputers.
http://www.object404.com