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.

We have Absolute Radio ok, not too many adverts and during the working day they do not repeat songs so it is not on a loop, they also do not play "chart" music, nor rap or hip hop, but play everything from 60s to current releases. It seems to be a pretty universal in most offices these days because of those reasons.

I find the radio distracting at work.‘I’m so much more focused when it’s on. But it seems to be the norm that it goes on. Always radio 2 which I don’t mind but I’d prefer radio 1. Jeremy vine annoys me at times and sometimes it’s ghastly oldie stuff that just grates

When it’s not on. I have it off when I’m alone but otherwise my office colleague has it on the whole day. Something about less anxiety or something 🤷‍♀️

Go in early, before the others arrive, and smash it with a hammer.
Just shrug your shoulders and look blank when someone asks what happened to the radio.

(You may need to do this a few times when they bring replacement radios in)

I really sympathise, I used to have a job where our manager loved having Heart on all day and point blank refused to change it to anything else (we'd change it over on the rare occasions she wasn't in tho). Definitely agree about getting a DAB radio, so much more choice. In my current job we mostly have Greatest Hits radio on which can get a bit repetitive, we have Absolute 80s and 90s a lot too.

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 had one job where we were told in our induction that there was no radio in the workplace, there would be no radio in the workplace, and not to ask for one - basically for this reason. It had descended into people squabbling all the time so they took it away never to return.

At the time I thought it was a bit of a miserable/controlling attitude but I definitely appreciate such policies now. I wouldn't want to work somewhere with the radio on.

@TwoLeftSocksWithHoles

Go in early, before the others arrive, and smash it with a hammer. Just shrug your shoulders and look blank when someone asks what happened to the radio.

(You may need to do this a few times when they bring replacement radios in)

Direct action. Like it.

@TwoLeftSocksWithHoles

Go in early, before the others arrive, and smash it with a hammer. Just shrug your shoulders and look blank when someone asks what happened to the radio.

(You may need to do this a few times when they bring replacement radios in)

I would genuinely consider this.

I could not stand this at all and I definitely couldn't do any proper work. My dd is going to the dentist once every six weeks to have her braces tightened and they have local radio on. I have to stand in the doorway as that's the covid rule and I am demented after about ten minutes.

I'm amazed this is a thing in an office. Can understand it on a shop or factory floor where tasks are more manual, but in the office, I need to concentrate and would find the radio extremely distracting. I'd have to be arsey, put headphones on and just take them off when conversation was needed.

We all listen to what we want through headphones but having a radio on all day would drive me mad. I hate the adverts and the crap chat between and over the music.

If you're in first tamper with the cable or damage it in a hard to see way. I bet they won't replace it or insist on a digital one if they do.

The girls in our office have a radio rota. They work up the decades via decade stations on a dab radio. A new decade every day then back to the start. They're aged 19 to nearly 70 so everyone has their era covered. No talk radio though as it's too distracting.

I hate constant noise. HATE it. Even when I can chose the radio station & volume. If I really felt I couldn't say anything I'd have to wear noise cancelling headphones & if they wanted to talk to me they'd have to come to my desk. or turn the fucking thing OFF

I dont like the radio on really, I find the constant background noise distracting. But I can cope with it, IF it's on a station that has a playlist of more than 5 songs.

In a previous job they have radio 1 on, drove me up the fucking wall!!

@TwoLeftSocksWithHoles

I've fantasised about that!! They would replace it with the one in the staff room so I would have to smash that one up too.

I think I'm going to suggest the DAB radio for more choice. Am perfectly happy to pay for it as a 'thanks for being so supportive and welcoming' present.

I have the same thing. There's a playlist and it repeats three or four times a day. It gives me a sense of DJ-vu.

A music licence is needed to play the radio at work.

That would drive me NUTS too. Hate the sort of inane Smashie and Nicey stuff on local radio. It's bad enough in the car for 20 minutes, must be horrendous all day.

There are radio stations out there which are different though - I went to a blood donation session on Thursday and they always have the radio on, not sure what it was but it was a very middle of the road station with Fleetwood Mac, One Direction, Duran Duran - total mix of all sorts of stuff. And a DJ just saying "That was Fleetwood Mac, and next up it's One Direction. It's 3.32pm."

No chatter, no phone ins. Didn't hear any ads.

I remember the office radio fondly, now I wfh!
Our bosses liked us to all work in silence, but like in school, except in our creative area where they always were allowed a radio, when we relocated our department and another ended up in the same space as the creative team so we kept the music.
Head of creative had a love of music with a heavy beat which was headache inducing and a habit of putting it on that channel then putting on headphones!

We switched to a DAB radio and Absolute, changing the decades on a daily basis, making sure the volume was just background.

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

No. Neither would I. I find background radio noise intrusive unless I'm actively listening to it. My mil and dh both try to hold conversations with radio or TV bellowing out. I've started to not engage until they've turned it off. They do both have it very loud though, so you have to shout over it.

Another vote for smash it with a hammer. Or keep breaking the fuse in the plug?

I’ve had this too, it’s also very unprofessional when making work calls with the muzak in the background

I like Sergeant Highway's approach to crap radio in Heartbreak Ridge. Very direct and an absolute one-off.

My hearing is poor, and background noise of any sort makes it harder for me to hear speech, either face to face or on the phone, so I would be the one saying the radio was hampering my efficiency. Surely the people who like a background noise should be the ones using headphones or earbuds and not inflicting their personally chosen noise on other people .

I feel your pain. I loathe having the radio on at work. I turn it off every day. And have been known to hide it.

I once worked in a fairly noisy workplace where local radio was on all day at a level where I couldn't quite hear the lyrics and speech. I'm a fan of Radio 4 and don't generally listen to any music, but I could not help trying to listen to the lyrics of the songs that came up repeatedly - (think "He's not heavy - he's my Brother"). Eventually, I asked a fellow worker what the song was about and she replied " I don't know - it's just background music", which made the whole thing seem utterly pointless to me. Was I glad to move jobs!