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.

You're a better woman than me, OP. That radio would have met with an 'accident'. Oh dear, what a shame.

I can't have random crappy radio stations on and work. It would be very unprofessional where I work, so fortunately I don't have this problem!

@mummyh2016 I generally like a bit of 6 music, but Mary Ann Hobgoblin is enough to send anyone to sleep. I can't be doing with her AT ALL

I miss the radio at work.

I am often in a room on my own and the silence is deafening. All I can hear on these days is the ticking of the clock. Enough to drive you insane!

I can see both sides though and it's hard to please everyone. I love having the radio on just in the background but totally understand that others don't like it. Which is why we have a blanket no radio policy at work.

I dont really understand why getting a digital radio would make much difference, thye have more choice but will they use it? (I think maybe putting a dud fuse in may be a better idea)

That would drive me insane. We sometimes have one day a year when Christmas music is played before we break up for the holidays and that is unbearable to me. I find it impossible to concentrate on work and have to go and take longer breaks just to calm down from the tension.

If I was starting at a new job where the radio being on was already established I would have to wear earplugs all day. Tough if anyone found me unfriendly, if they wanted any productivity at all I would need earplugs.

@callmeadoctor

I dont really understand why getting a digital radio would make much difference, thye have more choice but will they use it? (I think maybe putting a dud fuse in may be a better idea)

Because the choice of music radio on FM in most places in the UK is pretty woeful, with a handful of big brands playing out their most mainstream format on lots of separate, formerly local frequencies which are deliberately designed to deliver the biggest most popular songs when you turn on, leading to deliberate repetition across the day.

With a digital radio, you get more choices around a theme, so even if your colleagues are listening to, say, Heart, you can try Heart 70s, 80s, 90s or Dance without pissing them off too much - it still sounds like Heart.

Some stations like Absolute and Virgin (I think) even play the same shows out with different music choices. So if you like the presenters, you can consistently listen all week, but choose different decades, say, through the week.

Have they got a PRS licence for thr radio ?

One of the best days of my life in my previous team was when the CPS decided they weren't going to buy a licence for our shared office and my ears were no longer polluted by Leona Bluddy Lewis.

I'm not sure about the rules for PRS or PPL. I would assume an appropriate licence is only needed in a workplace where the general public, i.e. customers has access and can comfortably hear the radio, CD player or whatever. I did wonder about this in a new coffee shop that opened this morning. Capital FM was on the radio and I thought it was a very quick method of alienating your potential older customers, provided the proprietors had a licence in the first place!

We don't have radio on in our office but one or two of us have headphones...
I have someone who never shuts up on one side of me so I tend to have ear bud in that side and listen to whatever takes my fancy that day.

In precious office it was Heart Fm or Radio 4 neither of which float my boat

@WildRosie

I'm not sure about the rules for PRS or PPL. I would assume an appropriate licence is only needed in a workplace where the general public, i.e. customers has access and can comfortably hear the radio, CD player or whatever. I did wonder about this in a new coffee shop that opened this morning. Capital FM was on the radio and I thought it was a very quick method of alienating your potential older customers, provided the proprietors had a licence in the first place!

Nope, it applies to an ordinary office

@PinkiOcelot

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.

And I can’t tune it out. I cannot understand the need to have noise you aren’t paying any attention to just there for it’s own sake.

YABU purely for suggesting BBC radio. The absolute WORST for people droning on!!

Take the fuse out. Most people wouldn’t think to check that.
Or replace it with a blown fuse. And if someone checks it then say you are sure you saw a pack of fuses in a drawer in the staff room. Then find one of those, which also happens to be a blown fuse.

@EastWestWhosBest

Take the fuse out. Most people wouldn’t think to check that. Or replace it with a blown fuse. And if someone checks it then say you are sure you saw a pack of fuses in a drawer in the staff room. Then find one of those, which also happens to be a blown fuse.

It would be the second thing I checked (after switching it off and on again)! Surely it would be obvious to most people.

We have radio 2 on mostly at work. Jeremy Vine drives me insane and they always have medical problems on Mondays. At lunchtime. Usually involving private body parts, bums, poo or pus. < not envy!
And if that's not put you off your sandwich, he's followed by Steve Wright.
I do like Ken Bruce and pop master in the mornings though!

I’m a misery and don’t think that there’s any place for radio in a shared office.

I share with my assistant 4 days a week. On the day alone I listen to a variety of stuff. Nothing when she’s there.

I’d find this unbearable OP.

@Merryoldgoat

I’m a misery and don’t think that there’s any place for radio in a shared office.

I share with my assistant 4 days a week. On the day alone I listen to a variety of stuff. Nothing when she’s there.

I’d find this unbearable OP.

I don't think that makes you a misery. In a shared office, unless you all have similar tastes, it's common sense not to have the radio on.

Plus those who ‘need’ background noise can pop in an earphone. The answer isn’t to make everyone listen to it.

@antsinyourpanta
What would weekday mornings be without good old Ken Bruce and PopMaster?

Isn’t it annoying though when inconsiderate people insist on talking throughout the duration of PopMaster?

I’ve now resorted to “shut the fuck up, the quiz is on” routine!

I’ve worked in a million offices in a range of industries and no one every played the radio.

A couple of times someone put the radio on for the Christmas songs on Christmas Eve but that’s it.

I could not work like this, OP, and would have to speak up and ask people to listen to music on their headphones. If that prevents them from doing their job then they shouldn’t put them on.

I can't work in sn office without background music. I don't like silence though even at home. But the arguments over stations are crazy. I hate radio 2 and 4 and others don't like what I listen to either. We had a rota in the end

I should add that I used to wear headphones a lot but now we are permanently work from home which is bliss

Isn’t it annoying though when inconsiderate people insist on talking throughout the duration of PopMaster?

Yes! Or customers phone.

One place I work has it, one doesn't. The variety of opinions is interesting.

MadMadMadamMim

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.

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