Wearing Headphones at the Office

Can You Wear Earphones at Work?

June 8, 2010

amusesbouche shared this question in our Ask Savvy group.

At my last office, it was completely verboten to wear earplugs at work — it would’ve felt out of place — but I just walked by a bunch of people all wearing earphones in my office, and that's the norm. What about you?

16 Comments

2 years 49 weeks

I work as a designer and everyone here wears headphones. The sundry shop downstairs sells headphones for those who forgot their pair. But we also have no dress code, ride around the building on scooters, and draw on the walls. So headphones are quite tame.

FrugalFranny 2 years 49 weeks

Well I thought that it would be a no-no since we have to answer the phone a lot BUT the 2 new girls do and now one of my other co-wrkers has and no one has said anything.I'd love to have the radio on but the cranky old accoutns lady doens't like it...she does seem to thrive on making people miserable though

FrugalFranny 2 years 49 weeks

Well I thought that it would be a no-no since we have to answer the phone a lot BUT the 2 new girls do and now one of my other co-wrkers has and no one has said anything. I'd love to have the radio on but the cranky old accoutns lady doens't like it...she does seem to thrive on making people miserable though

Stacey Cakes 2 years 49 weeks

Any sort of music is considered unacceptable at my office. Personally I think music could increase productivity and morale, but the owner considers unprofessional.

skigurl 2 years 49 weeks

I think we're allowed, and sometimes (rarely) I see people doing so, but not many people do...I don't feel the need to because I find music distracting when I'm working, and anyway I'm not an ipod kind of person (like i never listen to my ipod on the bus or anything...only when working out)

juicebox07 2 years 49 weeks

Yes. Thank goodness.

juicebox07 2 years 49 weeks

Yes. Thank goodness.

Spectra 2 years 49 weeks

No, we aren't allowed to even listen to the radio due to Joint Commission standards. Supposedly, it leads to more mistakes.

liz26111 2 years 49 weeks

Thank god I was allowed to wear headphones at my last job. I had my supervisor's obsession for sports radio to one side and to the other I had my crazy co-worker's really, really odd music. I had to save my sanity somehow.

2 years 49 weeks

In my last office at a cosmetics company, it would have been totally weird to wear headphones.

GirlOverboard 2 years 49 weeks

Everyone here has headphones on. In my last position, since I was moderating forums and answering customer e-mails all day, I would have died without Pandora and the occasional odd TV episode on Hulu in the background. In my current position, I'm testing games so I always have headphones on to test the audio. However, if I'm running test cases that don't require me to be paying attention to the audio, Pandora and the occasional YouTube playlist of music videos keep me from falling asleep. :]

GirlOverboard 2 years 49 weeks

gigly_grl 2 years 49 weeks

As a graphic designer a lot of my coworkers "need" music to help them work and it never seems to work that everyone likes the same music so earphones were the norm... as long as you could still hear what was going on around you... unfortunately the boss didn't like it, and thus now no music or earphones allowed.

Frenched 2 years 49 weeks

It's acceptable now but there was a time we couldn't wear them because of "safety" reasons (ie: if the fire alarm went off we wouldn't be able to "hear" it) but it seems like everybody's blown off that rule and continue to wear them. I'm still not sure if we're supposed to or not.