Comments for Anneli B. Haake PhD - Music at Work

Comment on Findings by anneli

anneli — Tue, 06 Mar 2012 14:44:24 +0000

Hi Cory! Thanks for your comment! It is really interesting to hear about how it works in different companies, and how different attitudes to music can be. It is very common that it is down to individual managers whether workers are allowed music or not, and their reasoning for this may not always be well thought through. Not only in my own research, but in much research previously, it has been argued that music listening can be beneficial for monotonous jobs – which is what your job is like, if I understand you correctly. Having control over the music is a very important factor in this – so, in other words, managers just choosing music for their employees in a ‘one size fits all’ kind of way is usually not that good. Instead, when employees can control and choose their music at work (at least to some extent), then it has several positive effects. These effects seem to start with feelings of positive mood and well-being, and also by employees perhaps not being disturbed by other kinds of noise. These things can then ‘rub off’ on productivity. The problem is that some managers do not particularly care about the well-being of their workers, as long as they work fast and hard. I don’t know if this is the case at your workplace. But if this is the case, the managers may not be as interested in music at work, because they can not see a clear connection between music and productivity. My own opinion is that this is a very crass way of looking at things, and probably even a false economy. With that, I mean that if organisations do not look after their employees in terms of well-being and job satisfaction, they are likely to have more people off sick, and people leaving – which means large financial costs. So even if it is difficult to prove that music has a direct impact on pure productivity, it can still have clear relationships with profits and finance of the organisation as a whole. From my point of view, it would be easy to point to studies of where music is beneficial for monotonous jobs and argue that the costs of facilitating music would be beneficial for them – and I am thinking in terms of your job satisfaction, mood and well-being which also affects concentration. But whether your managers would listen, and would be interested to try, I don’t know. I wish you the best of luck, and thanks again for your comments. /anneli

Comment on Findings by cory cooper

cory cooper — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 10:18:22 +0000

I work for a pretty big company you might have herd of it amazon.com I am a picker basically I walk around for 10 hours with my little shopping cart and pick 1350 items 2 make rate I usually get 1500/1800. I have talked 2 managers and every one I could to get a radio in there after weeks of convincing they said I could bring one in it was great but I could not take it out without a security badge which I’m not eligible for since I’m tier 1 associate but I took it in their anyways it was great until it came up missing. Just wondering if you had any advice that might help me sway my bosses and improve the lives of my coworkers. They are always pushing time on task and productivity not only do I think music would help them but us workers 2.

Comment on Music at work: distracting or beneficial? by annie cumming

annie cumming — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 14:41:26 +0000

i think this research is very beneficial to kids. im doing a project on this study and i think i got a lot of great info on it. Thanks for the help:)

Comment on What benefits can music listening at work have? by anneli

anneli — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 16:57:19 +0000

Hello Bill! Thank you very much for your interesting comments. You are pointing out the most important thing about music in the workplace, which is also one of my main findings in my doctoral research on music at work: choice. Imposed music – having to listen to music at work when you don’t want to – can be very negative for people, and can lead to stress, irritation and problems with concentration. It seems like this has been what you have experienced, if I read your comments right (that you have had no choice)? However, some of your co-workers probably feel the opposite, that they cannot work without music! There are many factors that come into play as to why some people prefer music while working, and why some prefer silence. Regardless, the most important thing is to have choice – choice of whether to listen or not, choice of when to listen, choice of what to listen to, and how to listen. If choice is removed, music is less likely to be beneficial, and could even feel like torture! Thanks again for your input! /anneli

Comment on What benefits can music listening at work have? by bill

bill — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 16:20:52 +0000

I am sorry but I do not agree with your viewpoint on music in the workplace.
I have been subjected to listening to music at work most of my working life, esp., in the past four years. Constant music, 8 hours a day, 5 days a week, for 4+ years.
Hardly a moment of quiet the whole time.
I am a person who enjoys quiet and time to be centered on what I am doing.
I am not afraid of silence. I find that I can be more productive, less distracted, and can
deal with boredom by focusing within.
I am probably an exception to the rule these days of technological noise that invades our world and lives, 24/7/365.
I feel sorry for my co-workers who just can’t seem to get it done with tunes constantly being on in our workplace.
Thank you.

Bill

Comment on Sodcasting – music as anti-social behaviour? by Andi

Andi — Wed, 17 Aug 2011 02:57:23 +0000

This post is true , and the pic is of me , and yes I used to get on the bus,train, ferry or any public place a turn this thing up to 11 with Motorhead blasting out the speakers annoying the hell out of everyone , the 80s was fun but now I play drums so I can still give the people a headache …..I still have the blaster however It no longer works