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?"
Without music at work there won't be any more programmers, the issue will be moot
Your boss is a retard.
Yeah, sure your headphones don't leak, but other people's do. And I'm not running around buying headphones for everyone. Why should I change, they're the ones who suck!
Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
Find a way to measure relative productivity, and relative error rates, for before and after you had to stop using music.
Use objective facts to show your boss what a twat he is.
MILTON I, I told Bill that if Sandra's going to listen to her headphones while she' working, I can listen to the radio while I'm collating - MILTON I enjoy listening to the radio at a reasonable volume from nine to eleven.
What is slashdot?
Actually, your boss has the right to tell you what you can or can't listen to at work. More importantly, if your boss doesn't want you to do something -- it's not a matter of raging against the machine for your 'human rights'. Either you can perform your job to your superiors' requirements or you can't. If you work somewhere that says what you can or can't listen to, odds are the path that led you there wasn't a happy one to begin with.
You have no right to listen to music, just as you have no privacy in your email.. When someone's paying you to be somewhere to do something -- you do it to their (legal) specifications or they can fire you for not performing. Happily never had that situation myself, but.. in this economy you'd have to be insane to pick a fight over something this trivial.
Do what olden times people did, whistle. If people complain, _whistle in your mind_.
I am pretty sure, that the official reason is not the real reason. My best guess is that other employees have complained about the privilege of the programmers (listening music while working). Since your boss knows that giving this reason would create dissent, he has choosen the quality issue as official reason. That is the reason why discussing the pretended reason will not make him change his mind. I have seen this happening a hundred times... humans are so petty. CU, Martin
My experience with listening to music at the workplace has been more positive than negative. Only one employer (NEC) actively prohibited listening to personal music, while others allowed it. One other employer in particular (Epson) even had music streamed non-stop over a PA. (Granted, when management realized more people were listening to personal players instead, they discontinued the use of the PA.)
surely you're going to code better if what ever you do hear is pleasing to you.. Throw in a pair of noise-cancelling headphones so you can have the music on whisper-quiet and you're set.
That just depends on how much you concentrate on the music: if you really listen to it, it can be distracting. If you merely hear it, that shouldn't be detrimental.
Personally, I find the best music to code to - if any - is either ambient music or "smooth jazz", genres that are mostly made for staying in the background and not claiming too much attention.
I've heard bosses and professors before say that if you're listening to music, then you're not 100% focusing on your studying/work. In an environment where its perfectly silent, then I can see how music can be distracting. However, most of us work in an office where there are cubicles with people within earshot talking about work or talking to other people on the phone. The problem with that is that people talking is very erratic. Pitch and volume changes unpredictably and those unpredictable changes suddenly distract me from my work. On the other hand, the music I have playing is, for the most part, music that I've heard numerous times. On top of that, there's a consistent "flow" to the music. It drowns out the distracting random noise and provides some constant noise that lets me focus on my work.
I think you should man up and tell your boss that no, he is NOT correct. I think any given person is usually in a better position to know what distracts them.
For large sets, this will be our guide even unto death, for the LORD will work for each type of data it is applied to...
I like music, and when it's on, I can't help but listen to it. That means that while music is playing, I can't concentrate on reading a book, let alone write code. This applies to all but the most ambient styles of music. And a drone doesn't help me work either. If I thought all programmers were like me, I'd ban headphones too.
But, we're all different, and I know some people do their best work when zoned out behind their headphones.
It sounds like this management decision comes from someone who doesn't realise how much people vary.
It would make sense to provide programmers with an environment where they can escape prattle when they need to, as well.
For your boss to try to dictate how you work like this is a form of micromanagement which demonstrates distrust.
Brush up your resume, in my experience managers who act in this fashion tend to get worse, not better. Working there is going to be an exercise in frustration. That said, a company is wholly within its rights to expect something like this of you. But by doing so they make themselves less competitive and attractive. Maybe they can get away with that for now, but in doing so they're destroying loyalty and directly contributing to a Dead Sea Effect - when the economy picks up the decent developers are going to evaporate, and the company will be left with a brackish collection of sub-par developers.
As to the original question, I find that the right music selection can really help with my code quality and speed. If I'm really ramped up on what I'm working on, a good fast paced techno, industrial, or otherwise highly rhythmic repetitious and fast paced music can contribute to a mental wave to surf. If I feel like my project pace is overly frenetic, there are too many expectations, and there's just really no way I'll meet all the obligations in the time allowed, something slow and soothing can bring down the blood pressure levels and let me concentrate on my work better.
Slay a dragon... over lunch!
Ask him if foam earplugs (nonmusical, just noise-dampening) are acceptable. I know music helps achieve flow state, but even the reduction in noise level might help somewhat. This is a good test also, if he says no to foam earplugs then you know it wasn't really about the music. And it may penetrate his pointy-haired mind that the surrounding noise level is really a problem.
I never had any problems regarding this issue. What might be a solution is to use earplugs. A colleague of mine uses earplugs when he is doing "serious" work (as he says) and he seems to do just fine. It's just a little bit funny that you have to ask him everything twice, as he won't hear it the first time and first has to remove the earplugs -- ad you don't know beforehand if he is currently wearing his earplugs as you can't see them (at least not from two meters away). The earplugs have the psychological advantage of making other people disrupt you less often: It takes some time till you remove the earplugs and they have to ask their question twice, so they think twice if the effort of this is worth the answer -- Dummy-questions good-bye!
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.
Stress out to him that it's not like you're buying 10 new CDs a day and listening intently to them while on the company's time, but just whiting out very distracting noises so that you can focus on your job.
Show him how you come to work with your music already chosen, and spend 0 time on it (I can spend hours building a playlist :-p )
Be careful to NOT discuss music with you coworkers for a while, nor visit any music sites...
Try and find examples of companies that he will judge well-run (not geeky nerdy ones, more in his frame of reference - Google, MS... don't count) that do allow music for programmers.
If all that doesn't work, try and work out an agreed playlist / music genre, or just wear earplugs/muffs ? That would suck, though.
The Cloud - because you don't care if your apps and data are up in the air.
...sing. Loudly.
While I agree that music is much less annoying than the noise of other people trying to get their jobs done, sometimes when I'm coding alone in my house I need to crank some Aphex Twin or other discordant mentalism just for a base level of distraction - I find if 10% of my mind is trying not to get distracted it helps the other 90% just get on with the job in hand.
I suppose it's sort of like chewing gum or fiddling with stationary - there's just a bit of your mind dedicated to looking out for tigers, and if you're confident there are no tigers in your office you need to give it something else to do.
Be smart, help people!
When working with music on, I've found that whatever the style of music I listen to (from ambient to afrobeat to folk rock to heavy metal), it tends to put me into a trance-like state, where I am able to do good designing or a lot of routine coding work, or debugging, which makes me much more productive. But what I've also noticed is that every kind of music sets a different working rhythm, so different kinds of programming work need a different type of music for the best results.
Nice ambient, lounge, trance for example, tend to be somewhat good for designing and implementing new stuff, or cracking hard debugging issues (i.e. they stimulate abstract thinking and imagination). Hard rock, afrobeat, drum'n'bass make it easier doing some routine coding (I mean, coding which is routine) and simple routine debugging and testing, increasing your raw productivity.
I have also found, that just putting on big noise-cancelling headphones decreases the amount of effort needed to concentrate, while still allowing you to quickly respond to anyone asking you about anything. This is detrimental though, since closed earphones tend to make your ears more susceptible to catching cold, when you're using such headphones too much, something I have found out myself the hard way.
When a manager is intimidated by his/her direct reports, they often focus on trivial and insignificant issues. It allows them to boost their egos while exerting their dominance over you without actually making the wrong decision on things that are actually important. And, unless you work for the military, there is a very heavy line drawn between what a manager can and can't tell you to do if it isn't already in your employee handbook. A vegetarian boss couldn't make all his/her employees eat only vegetables at work, the same can be applied to music. Particularly in this case where you've got a tradition of acceptance and so long as it doesn't interfere with anyone's work. You could also throw a passive strike and have everyone call in sick during crunch/deadline time. But that would require a solidarity that most IT folks don't share (unfortunately, as an IT union would rule the world, literally, in about 24 hours).
I have programmed drunk, with not enough sleep, in my dreams (thats code that always run but is written in the most volatile material), angry, happy, hot, ...everything. I have programmed in enviroments with HEAVY noise around, not problem. But I can't work with music, and much less with radio of people talking. My mind is distracted by sound (information) that has a message. To be honest, I like programming in the night, with zero sounds. I like the silence much more than music.
-Woof woof woof!
My position on this is that the manager is a troll and is a control freak.
I listen to a very large collection of music & podcasts at work.
If I had a manager actually state that as a position with the particular environs you mentioned I would be demanding a number of things:
1) segregation of the programmers to a more isolated area
2) segregation of anyone who is in sales to a basement office with sound proofing
3) scientific studies that the manager in question was not beaten up and stuffed in lockers in high school
Now while much of what I'm writing above may be construed as flame bait, I just posit it for laughs.
Seriously though, music and/or podcasts are some of the mechanisms I was using to deal with either utter silence (because my dev team was fairly isolated) or high volume sales people (after consolidation of the office employees after 1st round of layoffs).
When I'm really coding I don't hear the music.
A few weeks ago I had album shuffle on, using laptop speakers in office when someone came in.
It was half way through my child's nursery rhymes and I hadn't even noticed.
I quickly shut it off - I guess my guest thought my taste in music was a little strange.
It sounds like your boss isn't a programmer, otherwise they wouldn't even be making their assertion. sigh...
:-)
So your boss claims when you listen to music you're collectively distracted and you make more mistakes. You should then, since you take anything that can improve the quality of the code seriously, hold this meta-contribution to the corporate codebase to the same standard as anything else - in other words, require it be tested and verified before committing it.
While from your standpoint this is likely to get you what you want, since it's very unlikely that your boss has anything factual to back up their position, it's also the most respectful way of considering your boss' potential contribution. "OK, even though you're not a skilled programmer, we'll still accept and treat your contribution just as if you were. Now here's the level of quality we all expect and demand from everything we put in our product - does what you intend to add actually meet the standards our company requires?"
And this also gives them the possibility of showing you how they're right, and for whatever reason the programming group is distracted and error-prone. Even if music isn't the immediate cause (perhaps more of a late-stage symptom of some other systemic problem), that would still be very helpful to know.
Of course, if you're just a bunch guys sitting around slinging code, you're gonna be SOL in this if you don't have any structure, testing and metrics to your development - and if you don't then your boss might strictly speaking be mistaken but indirectly be life's way of helpfully prompting you to get your act together.
Good luck improving your work environment. Rock out with your awk out!
I'll bet it's one of the people making the noise that's behind the complaint. Probably somebody who, for sound[1] reasons, can't listen to music while working.
Yes, since you ask, I did just glance over at sales.
[1] sorry
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
Robert M. Pirsig in Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance said very clearly that seeing mechanics work with music in the background was the sound of a poor quality workshop. I've thought about this with regard to programming and I sway between needing total silence and needing music.
Pete Boyd
Start making lots of mistakes to prove your point. :-)
I personally find that sometimes, when the right song or songs are on, I get into a groove and do much more work. As for accuracy, its probably about the same. Music more so helps with my productivity.
... it can be necessary when you hit the zone.
Yep! It never ceases to amaze me how the upper echelons of management can be so utterly clueless about how their companies work! Time after time I've worked in places where stupid decisions such as these are made - such as changing from different office space for the Sales/Marketing type folks and the Programmers/Developers to lumping them all in the same open plan office so we can all be "one big team"! 'Cos that's just what I like when I'm trying to code - sales and marketing buffoons talking too damn loud on the 'phone etc! Other 'funny' decisions is stuff like insisting that Programmers/Developers must all wear suits and ties because if you look smart you will work smart. Programmers often have their little foibles and management will ALWAYS be trying to shoe-horn them (us!) into their view of how Programmers should be! It's laughable really - I thought this sort of thing would stop happening once the IT people started to rise up through management and get to the top, but it still seems to be mostly the accountant types who get the top jobs (and they still cut pencils in half to save money!).
Being in The Zone is such a great feeling too, then some numbnuts manager will come over and ask for a progress report and blow it all away!
Eclectic beats from Leeds, UK
handmadehands.co.uk
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?
- These characters were randomly selected.
There are two ways to listen to music.
1. Passive ... this is what MOST people do when they listen to music as they do things. ... this is where you pay active attention to the music.
2. Active
3. Passive Aggressive. This is listening to Lynch The Man by Rage Against The Machine while writing accounts tracking software unenthusiastically.
echo -e 'global _start\n _start:\n mov eax, 2\n int 80h\n jmp _start' > a.asm; nasm a.asm -f elf; ld a.o -o a;
Huh?
Ah.
sombody refer this man to the Fast Track CEO Program, STAT!
Steve -- If you have to call it a system, you don't know what it is.
I do a lot of work next to the sales team -- mostly that is not a problem as I am fairly able to tune out their prattle.
But something I really NEED to concentrate on something. I find that listening to white noise (ocean waves or something) quickly filters out the conversations around me.
I am completely unable to work with music on -- my preferred working environment is one of pure silence.
If the boss makes idiotic decisions that destroy productivity, I think it is reasonable to be insubordinate.
[Without wishing to start a flame war, I've noticed that this blind allegiance to one's boss is very common in America. I have no idea why a people that so value their independence is so supine in the work place.]
As for music while coding, I've found dance music (or anything without lyrics - jazz or classical, but especially high energy dance) helps me concentrate.
--- "We've always been at war with Eastasia."
In every company that I have worked for, they have explicitly made me sign an agreement that anything I type (paraphrasing slightly) on the keyboard of my computer is subject to them reading and using in any context which they see fit. I have no expectations of privacy, and I suspect that they even track instant messaging in and out.
If you are in the US, the odds are very high that you have a similar set of rights. It is just the way that it is. Don't like it? Go freelance, or start your own operation. But I guarantee you that after you add a few employees, you will probably adopt a similar privacy policy.
I know that most of Europe has much moe expectation of privacy, and also other rights, but here in the USA, not so much.
Suppose you were an idiot and suppose you were a member of Congress
Did the boss take your red stapler too?
Suppose you were an idiot and suppose you were a member of Congress
If you are going to do that, you should go to an Audiologist, and get custom fit earplugs. I have a couple of pairs, one for motorcycle riding which blocks about 90% of the sound (and are most helpful for sleeping in LOUD hotel rooms) and a set of musicians ear plugs for when i am playing guitar with friends.
Not too expensive, and the custom fit makes them effortless to wear for long periods of times.
Suppose you were an idiot and suppose you were a member of Congress
I think I read somewhere that music is OK, but lyrics basically have the same effect as chatting people, some part of your brain listens to and interprets the words. Unfortunately that uses language and logic skills that you also need while programming. So, stick to classical and other instrumental music and you should be OK. MUch better than chatting people in the background. Here in Europe, at least we have doors that can be closed :)
One of the best moments of my programming career was when my boss came over and said he hated to see me with my feet up and hands interlaced behind my head (the classic 'kicking back' pose). My manager interjected with "right now he is earning the money you pay him".
So rare to get a manager that understands the process.
Literalism isn't a form of humor, it's you being irritating.
Assuming that all of the programmers are in agreement, here is what you should do:
Let me emphasize that last point: the problem is not the lack of music. The problem is the noise. The solution you want is a separate room, or else a sound-proof partition in the current room. As you point out, the music is mainly to drown out the chatter. Get rid of the chatter, and the music is a non-issue.
Enjoy life! This is not a dress rehearsal.
My goal at work is to get fired for bringing things to people's attention.
We got a 5% pay cut because of financial performance, but I don't have anyone under me - I just follow orders. So following orders like a good worker resulted in a pay cut.
We also took a survey to represent the supposed Voice Of the Workforce, and a major action item is to improve things. Like 'management makes good decisions' type questions and 'Id recommend this place to a friend'. We're supposed to fix things because the responses are negative at this point.
The only way is to stand your ground. I have survey results and a pay cut as my explanation if my manager wants to question why I'm causing problems. Following orders got me a pay cut, exposing stupidity will get me either smart coworkers at my current job, or smart coworkers at a job I'll be forced to look for when I get fired. Either way, I'm not going to be responsible for other peoples' decisions. If they don't want you to be a happy employee, you probably don't want to work there anyway.
I'm 0 for 2 on getting fired, meaning I complained enough that I feared getting fired, twice, and they fixed things instead. I'm currently working on a third complaint, will let you know how it goes on Monday.
I'm a musician, and when I compose music I like to listen to people write code.
Actually, since I do a lot of my work in Cycling 74 MAXdsp, which is not unlike working in a visual development system for software or IDE for music and sound, you could say that when I compose music I listen to myself program. Or when I program, I listen to myself write music.
But I absolutely must have a TV on with the sound turned down.
You are welcome on my lawn.
Get a white noise generator. I have an ancient one that sits in the corner of my office. It helps drown out the background chit chat and definitely helps me focus my attention without distraction. No one notices that is is on but if I ever turn it off you suddenly become aware of just how noisy everyone is, you can hear every sniffle and word spoken and you realize just how distracting that really is. Maybe stage such a demo, have your noise generator running for a couple of weeks, then one day when your boss is in your cube, just reach over casually and turn it off. When he suddenly becomes aware of all the distracting chit chat pouring in, point out how much more productive you have been since you got the white noise generator and how it serves the same purpose for you music used to do when it was allowed. It might open his mind a little. Or not. But the main thing is you can concentrate.
...and the only conclusion ever reached by sociologists is: "Some do, some don't!"
No sig today...
I have a full office (walls, door) where I work, and I still need to use headphones because of the sound conduction through the wall and suspended tile ceiling, and I only have to deal with one person in the adjacent office, but sometimes it is due to people blabbing out in the hallway. I find that certain types of music are conducive to my concentration if I am programming, and if I am not programming, more types of music are also acceptable.
If the goal is to filter out noise, then the simples solution is to put on your headphones or ear buds and listen to white noise. Your body is programmed to give "attention" to the white noise, and you won't add possible distractions in the form of lyrics, solos... That said, regarding to music everyone is different. If you see a programmer with headphones furiously typing on a code file, it's ok. If you see a programmer with headphones furiously playing an air guitar, on the other hand...
Working to work less.
In my previous job, like 7 years ago, I used headphones too and my boss once called me to his office and forbidden listening to music explicitly. I tried to explain and ask for reasons and he just told me he didn't have to explain anything. A couple months after I applied for a new job and entered an environment where everyone used headphones to keep them concentrated to their work and the company even bought the headphones on request. And guess what, all the good developers left sooner and later too. Managers like this are just morons, get off if you can.
I work at a huge credit card company, they allow all of us programmers to listen to music. They actually encourage it, there's no way we could drown out all the other noise of the cubicle farm. They gave us Microsoft Communicator so we could still communicate while we had headphones on. I would probably quit if I couldn't listen to music to drown out all the shit in the background.
Well of course. Your code is digital and so is your music. Digital + digital = twice as much digital!
Forget you. You are not valuable. You are an expense. You are a necessary evil that cuts into the profits. Why do you think the company stock goes up when a bunch of you are laid off? If you were valuable assets, then the company could borrow against your value like it can against inventory and accounts receivable. You could be sold or traded like inventory or the old company car.
Right now there are fifty guys in line for your job. Your manager can replace you with another monkey in clothing faster than you can say "But I like music." IT does not matter what your experience or your skills or education, you are a cog in a machine and when you squeak you get replaced with some less squeaky cog.
That's the nature of companies in our day in age.
Creative Spelling Copyright (2002). May use without Persimmons
I often find myself slapping on headphones even when I'm not listening to music to keep people from randomly popping into my cubicle to talk about meaningless drivel which is the most distracting thing. When I do listen to music, I prefer something that moves quickly without distracting vocals. Look, good programmers are exceedingly good at optimizing their own productivity and do not need bosses who've read the study du jour and decided that they know what's happening inside the heads of their programmers. The current study was conducted with pop music which any programmer would already have told you is too distracting for them. Of course there were the previous studies that showed classical music increased memory and cognition in students which the marketing wonks decide it made babies into Einstein even though the study did not apply to babies nor were the effects long-lasting. If you want the project done, you can at least allow me to manipulate the environment surrounding my own head since I have much more experience in achieving my own highest productivity than any manager ever will.
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 enjoy what I call my "8-bit mix" -- various songs, each with some kind of "8-bit" flavor to them. Some are old Nintendo themes (Tetris for the GB had great music for looping), some are simple classical instrumentals (pieces by Rameau, The Harmonious Blacksmith, etc.)
But then again, my programming tends to be very procedural (and often 8-bit assembly). YMMV.
About the only common theme seems to be order, as opposed to chaos.
Paleotechnologist and connoisseur of pretty shiny things.
I've found that vocal music is just as detrimental as voices chatting. So now I have yet another reason to not play country music. Instrumental music, most classical music, vocal-free electronica, and even heavy metal that manages to drown own their own vocals, works to boost the creative process ... at least for me. I code to everything from Beethoven to Burzum.
now we need to go OSS in diesel cars
We get around this with IM, Email, and PostIt notes.
now we need to go OSS in diesel cars
How about a set of really big ear covering protectors that have "Smith & Wesson" printed on each side, with a picture of a pistol. Or maybe the "Glock" ones.
now we need to go OSS in diesel cars
How right you are.
The interesting thing is that an environment like that, there are 2 political messages that become a lot more appealing:
1) blame some minority group of people for all your woes: Mexican immigrants, black people, communists, Jews, Muslims, etc. In short, fascism.
2) band together with the other exploited workers to put a stop to oppressive management. Workers of the world, unite! In short, communism.
And when you look for the last time both of those messages really took hold, you get Europe in the early 20th century.
I am officially gone from
Fire off a memo/email to the boss and HR every time you're distracted by the ambient noise.
Guy comes to fill the vending machines? That's a memo.
Someone in a nearby cube on the phone? That's a memo.
Boss walks through the cubes talking to someone else? That's a memo.
Make the point that unless you either have a private office with a door, OR SOME METHOD OF ISOLATING THE AMBIENT DISTRACTIONS IN YOUR CUBE, you're going to continue documenting every time you're distracted due to his stupidity.
Technology -- No Place For Wimps! Grateful Dead and Jerry Garcia Chatroom -- http://www.wemissjerry.org
For me, complete silence is the best way to program. At work, that's impossible and the people I work around practically yell pointless chatter all day, so music becomes the best second choice.
:)
I have noticed that music actually hinders my ability to program slightly. I am not as "in the zone" with music playing, but it is MUCH easier to concentrate with a song you can tune out than with people laughing and talking about their weekends (or even work related talk).
People that don't require that level of concentration at work don't (and can't) understand...scheduling meetings, talking on the phone, writing emails, and multitasking is much easier to do without concentration compared to wrapping your head around hundreds of lines or thousands of code and how they all interact. I think programming without concentration would be nearly impossible for me, and more importantly would be dangerous...music avoids that.
If the boss wants to be a dick then throw it back at him with an official ADA request at HR for a reasonable accommodation of a white noise system to block out the office conversations that are triggering your ADD. I've actually worked at places that use white noise systems to create privacy, and the ones that actually work are quite expensive and have to be installed in the entire work area. Add a footnote to the request that if only your dickhead boss would let you use your iPod they wouldn't have to go through the expense.
This is an extreme, and inaccurate oversimplification. There are thousands of unemployed programmers, but honestly most of them are shitty and I would never hire them. During this current downturn we interviewed about 25 developers for an open position and found 2 acceptable candidates.
Plus, you invest a lot of time and effort training someone in how to work at your company with your development process. It takes them time to become familiar with the code they're working on. Employees in general, and coders in particular are not simple cookie cutter replacements and your boss knows this. The average cost to bring a new coder up to speed measures in the 10s of thousands of dollars.
--- It is not the things we do which we regret the most, but the things which we don't do.
For the last two years of my bachelors and all of my MBA, when ever I studied, read, wrote papers, I always had music in the background. I went from and average GPA of 2.1 to 3.75 for that period. Many years later I would read a study that tested the effect on learning and listening to music. Consistently, students who listened to music while reading retained more then students that did not. The reasoning is that while concentrating on something technical the music engages the creative, thus making for connections in the brain and thus easier to recall. So your programmers are in a problem solving mode, listening to music, doesn't this apply as well. Making each programmer a better problem solver, better analyst...etc? Concentrating and listening to music makes you a better programmer!
I listen to classical symphonies, but I also find that listening to ballet (Swan Lake is a perfect, classic example) is even better than symphonies, because while there are technically more breaks in the music than a symphony, there tends to be a single narrative flow in a ballet.
What I mean is that in a symphony each movement has its own underlying theme, upon which variations are built. Ballet, on the other hand, tends to carry the same themes through the entire work (although often more than one - usually one for each major character).
I'm very easily distracted by sound and need to choose very carefully what I listen to when I need to concentrate. I always seem to come back to ballet.
True.
You do, I do, and most people here do. But the boss? Nope.
Your typical PHB doesn't even understand that. He'll probably think it means you hired someone who can't type very fast.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
The big issue here is the boss' PERCEPTION that developers are not producing at a level he expects or that the code being produced is crappy. The music edict is just a proxy for his real concern. It is critical for you to make sure the boss doesn't have this perception about YOU specifically. If so, you need to either find a way to change the boss' perception of you, or find another job. Most likely the boss' perception is general, and is not based on any real metrics of productivity or quality. What might help is suggesting to the boss how to collect such metrics, and more importantly how to present to his management that his team is very productive and has the highest quality work. It's very likely that the boss is being pressured by his management, so giving him the tools to fight back will help your teams' chance of avoiding the next round of layoffs. This is good for everyone: the boss gets credit, you are adding value, and everyone is aligned with the company's goals.
Not all background noise is from outside the ears. I have a condition (tinnitus? sp?) whereby there is a constant ringing in my ears, and so silence has the ability to drive me absolutely batty. I have to run a fan when I sleep, and any time I'm trying to work music is my constant companion. More than that, though, the music keeps me motivated -- I take a lot of energy from the music I listen to.
A research lab at one of the big chip makers issued me earmuffs, as they did to all employees. Note: This is a research lab, which looks a lot like any cubicle environment at a company like Google, Microsoft, etc. This worked very well, and to this day, I consider noise-blocking earmuffs to be part of my office supplies.
Good noise-blocking earmuffs are better than earplugs. If they are of good quality, they will be more comfortable than all but the best headphones. Be careful, because many of these earmuffs are designed to block loud noises like jet engines, while letting in conversations. You do not want something that lets conversations in, but instead, muffs that block everything.
The best set I have found (other than very expensive examples) are the Bilsom Viking V3 earmuffs. See http://earplugstore.stores.yahoo.net/bilsom-viking-v3-1.html as one example.
When I am wearing my earmuffs, I can barely hear my phone ring. If someone walks up behind me and talks to me, I do not know they are there.
-Todd
P.s. One more important consideration is one way to block noise is to block air movement. Some inexpensive earmuffs do this, but it causes pressure issues in your ears, similar to pushing your hands against your ears (painful!).
You can tell whether a set of earmuffs is good by putting them on and then pressing the muffs tighter into your head. If the pressure goes up like you are in an airplane, these are cheap. The Vikings will NOT do this.
Omne ignotum pro magnifico.
In case you hadn't picked up on it, "Workers of the world, unite!" is a direct quote from the Communist Manifesto. The folks I was referring to were most definitely Communists: The Republican side of the Spanish Civil War, the Red side of the Russian Revolution being the two most prominent examples.
I am officially gone from