About the radio at work?

[tulippa]

I've recently been promoted and have moved to a new office at work. The people I share the new office with are lovely and supportive and have been very welcoming.

However, there is one problem. The have the radio on all day and it's set to a local radio channel full of adverts and chart music (the same six songs played on a loop it seems). I'm not having a go at people who like chart music - it's just never been my thing.

But it's driving me up the wall! It's not exactly stopping me from concentrating but I find myself getting really tense when Elton John and Dua Lipa come for the fifth time that day or there's a phone in about what sandwich the listeners had for lunch.

I don't feel I can raise it as this is the way the others had have their office set up for ages. I'm the new person so don't feel I can start dictating the radio stations. We are all the same level of seniority but I am obviously the least experienced and often have to ask the others for advice on how to access systems etc so I want to maintain our current good relationship. Plus, I like them as people.

My personal choice would be radio 4 (I know this would go down like a lead balloon so not going there) or radio 6 (it's not a digital radio). I could cope with radio 2 but I overheard one of the others moaning once when another colleague changed to this channel in the past before I moved to this office.

Any suggestions? I'm starting to wake up in the night with the songs going round my head and I hate it. Apart from this, the job is great.

Get headphones and play office noises through them ?

Ear plugs?

Earplugs. I can't offer any more useful suggestions other than having the radio taken away. As well as having music on the radio these days, there are talk shows and phone-ins covering any subject from politics to sport to religion. All as potentially divisive as personal musical tastes. For these reasons I prefer a workplace without a radio.

If you can't ask them to turn radio off, then you probably need to buy some wireless over ear noise cancelling headphones

They can't moan about that if have radio in all the time

I wear bilateral hearing aids and this would drive me bananas as would stop me hearing anyone else or concentrating

Wear headphones?

The main station that I listen to is R4, but I’d be annoyed at that being on at work - because it’s a station you actively listen to, so I’d wonder why people thought they could do that and work at the same time!

I spent 6 months as a shift manager in a warehouse that played the local radio station in 1997. I can still sing all the lyrics to Bittersweet Symphony as a result. I feel your pain!

I don’t think you can change this… headphones all the way!

Oh, I feel for you. I once had a job where the radio, tuned to just such a station as you describe, was on all day. I wanted to throw it out of the window!

I'm not against the radio if it's a station of my choice - now I WFH I usually have it on, but a station you dislike drives you bats.

I agree as a newbie you are limited in what you can do. In your position I'd perhaps try to sound out some other colleagues on the matter - it may be that you're not the only one who is fed up with it. You could say (lightheartedly, to someone you think might agree) 'if I hear that advert again I'll scream' and see where the conversation goes.

If you have others on your side you could all propose a compromise - either no radio at all, or a rotation of different stations on different days.

Thanks for all the responses. I did consider headphones/earplugs but our work involves a lot of talking to each other about situations and ideas. Also I fear it would make me look a bit arsey. Which I don't want - this is literally the only thing that's bothering me. (It is bothering me a lot though.)

I have talked to one of the colleagues and he said he isn't bothered what's on as long as it's not radio 4. (I hadn't mentioned I listened to it at that point) So I put radio 2 on and it was Jeremy Vine phone in about stoma bags which both sat and listened to polite silence.

I've left it since. If I'm in first I leave the radio off but it tends to get switched on as soon as anyone gets in.

I might leave it for a bit and then suggest some sort of rota. Or buy a digital radio for the office so we have more choice of stations and can get a better compromise. Even Radio X or Absolute 90s would be doable.

In our office, the last radio we had conked out well over a year ago and thankfully, it has so far not been replaced. It was a choice of either Capital or Heart which probably suited our younger colleagues but drove old bastards like me to distraction with non-stop crap, both verbal and 'musical'.

@WildRosie

In our office, the last radio we had conked out well over a year ago and thankfully, it has so far not been replaced. It was a choice of either Capital or Heart which probably suited our younger colleagues but drove old bastards like me to distraction with non-stop crap, both verbal and 'musical'.

Yes, I can't stand it when they have a couple of trendy presenters wittering on about absolutely nothing. Actual features or topics - fine - but breakfast show type chat drives me insane.

I can’t bear being in the office without the radio. The silence does my head in. I just like the background noise. We listen to Absolute 80s or sometimes Smooth.

I had this on our small office but it was a solicitors so we had audio tapes. Was constantly on Smooth Radio which isn’t so bad but we had Adele on a lot! Sometimes when we didn’t have tapes though it could get a bit much but wasn’t in my office as such.

If it’s affecting you hearing and discussing work then suggest it’s turned down or moved to a more chatty station and maybe in offices PRS organisation have to be paid to use it if you want to be really picky.

That would drive me absolutely mad, OP.

I'd have to go down the noise-cancelling headphones route, and take them off if anyone wanted to talk to me.

I might even develop a hearing problem that made it difficult for me to hear in-office discussions while the radio was on.

Rota is good solution.

See you've said you would like radio 4 or radio 6 on. We have radio 6 on and I fucking hate it, especially the presenter on late mornings with the most monotone voice. If the others are all happy with the radio station that is on you'll have to suck it up like I have to.

I could not stand having to listen to noise of any sort all day long. I'd be looking for another job. Music/radio on non stop is my idea of hell.

I'm wondering whether you need a license of some sort to play a radio in the office; I seem to recall reading something about it a while ago. (Sledgehammer approach and not one you would want to pursue being the new person in the office though...)

@lljkk

Rota is good solution.

As a warehouse shift manager who had to deal with the rota squabbles, I’ll add that it’s not as good a solution as you might think 😭

I had to deal with men in their 50s (I was 20s at the time and thought 50 meant grown up 😆) sneaking into the office and switching the station, and others coming up to be literally on the hour to say “it has to be changed now.” It was very tedious!

I wouldn't be able to work at all with background music on.

DAB is the way forward, if only because you can switch between a few different mainstream music choices as you get bored (Absolute, 80s, 90s, 00s, Magic, Heart and its derivatives, Greatest Hits, Smooth) without being too niche

@tulippa

Thanks for all the responses. I did consider headphones/earplugs but our work involves a lot of talking to each other about situations and ideas. Also I fear it would make me look a bit arsey. Which I don't want - this is literally the only thing that's bothering me. (It is bothering me a lot though.)

I have talked to one of the colleagues and he said he isn't bothered what's on as long as it's not radio 4. (I hadn't mentioned I listened to it at that point) So I put radio 2 on and it was Jeremy Vine phone in about stoma bags which both sat and listened to polite silence.

I've left it since. If I'm in first I leave the radio off but it tends to get switched on as soon as anyone gets in.

I might leave it for a bit and then suggest some sort of rota. Or buy a digital radio for the office so we have more choice of stations and can get a better compromise. Even Radio X or Absolute 90s would be doable.

Buying a digital is a great idea. Saying you'd love some variety and here's a radio you can all use is a much easier message to get across than "please can you turn your idiotic pop music off, it sucks!"

@jagoda

I wouldn't be able to work at all with background music on.

Me neither.

Greatest Hits and Absolute both have ‘no repeat workdays’ so you’ll never hear the same song twice between 9-5. I love having music on, it’s miserable having to sit in silence!

We had a similar problem after we got a radio for the office. I eventually suggested we might change the station and absolutely everyone agreed. We like the background noise but everyone was sick of the same songs. We rotate daily between Magic, Absolute 90s, Radio X, Radio 1 and Heart.

I couldn't concentrate with the radio on, all that inane talk would drive me crazy. I listen to R4 in the car because I like to listen, when working I have Spotify on low in the background usually playing 70's music as I can't concentrate on two things at once as work with figures and data but I do work from home.