Listening to music at work

There is no doubt that music has the ability to put people in a great mood and lift the spirit. Whether you are in a supermarket, gym room or restaurant, there is always music playing in the background. Businesses have long understood the importance of this and often use music to add the ambience and make the customer experience better. However, some of the employers might be caught in a dilemma as they wonder whether allowing their employees to listen to music with headphones in the office can have a positive or negative influence on the staff’s performance. Therefore, I would like to take this opportunity to explore the pros and cons of listening to music at work and offer two pieces of advice for employees wishing to listen to music.

First, it brings forth a positive impact on the way people work. While employees’ stress levels automatically decline, allowing them to listen to music of their choices helps boost their work productivity. There is a research that proves that listening to music of one’s choice directly impacts the individuals’ mood and helps create a positive vibe which ensures satisfaction and ultimately impacts the work output.

Second, listening to music at work can make your routine tasks become less boring. Listening to music when you are working can make the brain work faster. It increases one’s mental performance, thus making mundane tasks bearable. This is especially true when your work demands you to repeat your tasks all day long.

There are some benefits of listening to music while working but there are also drawbacks. For example, it can make your mind forgetful. If you’re working and listening to music, it is not uncommon to experience memory gaps. You might forget where you are in the project or complete the entire task at hand without remembering what you did. When this happens, it is difficult to maintain the quality control because there is no recollection of what just happened.

Besides, some of the employers do not allow their subordinates to listen to music in the office with their headphones or ear plugs on. Then what can companies do if employees wish to listen to music at work? Here is some advice.

Everything has a reason. Employers should take the initiative to care for the employees and understand the reason why they wish to listen to music while they are working. Perhaps it is because there is high pressure in the workplace or because there is lack of communication and understanding between employers and employees. The former should understand their staff’s needs and work style, such as allowing them to listen to music when they work or offer other incentives to reduce the stress level of the employees.

Apart from this, the boss can set a fixed time to let employees listen to music when they are working, such as they can listen to music from 9 to 10.30am and after lunch like 1 to 2.30pm because these two time slots of the day can be the most tiring for employees. They can listen to music in these two sessions to raise their spirit and work efficiency. At the same time, it can satisfy the wish of the employees and the boss doesn’t need to worry about whether they will listen to music throughout the day while doing important tasks.

I hope this article has shed some light on the pros and cons of listening to music at work and that the suggestions are useful for both parties.