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.

I would hate that! My solution would be noise-cancelling headphones and listen to podcasts all day 🎧 .

I must work in a very different type of office to most people.
Having a radio on would be so disruptive. We have the phone ringing regularly, so having music in the background would be really unprofessional.
And it's never silent! People in and out, talking about work, a little chat, phone calls, questions about the work, etc. It's never ending. I'm lucky to get 5 mins of silence, so never need a radio to listen to.

Having a radio on would be so disruptive. We have the phone ringing regularly, so having music in the background would be really unprofessional.
And it's never silent! People in and out, talking about work, a little chat, phone calls, questions about the work, etc. It's never ending. I'm lucky to get 5 mins of silence, so never need a radio to listen to.

Ours is just like this (although it isn't an office) and we still have the radio on! It feels weird without the radio on.

Uuurgh!! Local radio,3 songs,3 stupid adverts,& the most boring announcers on earth telling us what's up next,absolutely mind numbing, sympathy to you

You can't make them change radio stations.
Local radio is awful but an inoffensive choice.

I hate the radio on in our office. We do a lot of our work over the phone and it’s hard to hear sometimes.

@tulippa how about just putting one earphone in? I find just having the one in neutralises sound. I can still hear what is going on around me but somehow feel less part of it. Also means that I can talk on the phone and have both hands free (the ear phones have a mic and are plugged into my phone).

I'm another who can't concentrate with the radio on. This has forced me to remember the Christmas Boots used "It's So Important to Make Someone Happy" in their Christmas ad. Some bright spark decided to sell the single in store and for weeks and weeks we had the single on repeat with nothing else to break it up... One of my school friends also worked there and we still mention it in our Christmas cards to each other...

There was a huge argument in my last office because an autistic employee couldn’t cope with the constant noise of the radio and couldn’t concentrate with it on, so requested as a reasonable adjustment for disability that it should be turned off. It’s ridiculous having a radio on in the office nowadays, Bluetooth headphones are so cheap and easy to use.

@TheNinny

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

I prefer radio 2 to the tuneless drivel on radio 1, but I'm a ghastly oldie

About 10 years ago I worked in a large prison and many of the offices used a radio. They didn’t have a PRS license and a member of staff complained to the governors because she didn’t like the radio being on in her office. So then a notice went out and none of the (30+) offices were allowed radios anymore. So you could do that. Not sure she was that well liked after though😬

This would drive me nuts!

Most of the time I can't stand any form of music or jingles - and the DJ's babble makes me murderous.

I can only suggest noise cancelling headphones. They don't work 100% but it is much more peaceful.

I have to go into the office once a fortnight now and my productivity there is rubbish. People constantly yakking to eachother and walking about randomly.

I treated myself to noise cancelling headphones and it is much better. I'm not asked my opinion on chit chat (if you could only eat Indian or Chinese for the rest of your life what would you pick - I kid you not) and I can ignore people and pretend I just didn't hear them!

In our workplace some people wore noise cancelling headphones, so they didn't hear the radio that offended them, or other people chatting ... but it meant they ignored the phone, the entry buzzer, customers etc...

I’m astonished that people have the radio on in offices. It wouldn’t be allowed in any office environment I’ve ever worked in. The default should be no radio. If people really want to listen to something, they would need to wear earphones and use their own personal music device. But it still wouldn’t be allowed - you couldn’t do the job at all.

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 haven't listened to a breakfast show properly since the brilliant Russ n Jono on Virgin back in the 90s (RIP Jono).

We're not allowed the radio on in the office so I often put my AirPods in and listen to music. One of the only positives of WFH has been being able to listen to music all day. I'm not sure DH sees it as a positive though...

We're not allowed the radio on in the office so I often put my AirPods in and listen to music. One of the only positives of WFH has been being able to listen to music all day. I'm not sure DH sees it as a positive though...

I put the TV on when I'm wfh! (Just fluffy stuff that requires v little concentration - I'd never be able to do anything at the same time as Line of Duty for example!)

Yes the office does need a license for the radio regardless if the public can hear it or not. But I’m not sure anyone even said they didn’t have a license so I’m not sure why it was mentioned.

OP it’s a hard one, I recall having a new member of staff who hated having the radio on. We had the radio on for 15 years so it made us terribly uncomfortable sitting in the silence. Her attitude towards it did make us resentful, she wasn’t nice about it.

I like a previous posters idea about playing different decades. It may well be that your office is probably sick of the radio playlists themselves but this is just standard for them. I know if the anti-radio woman suggested a compromise like this id be all over it , and I do love my local station

I haven't listened to a breakfast show properly since the brilliant Russ n Jono on Virgin back in the 90s (RIP Jono)

I used to love that show. The pranks they played were really funny.

What about a little speaker with Spotify playing?
The massive benefit here is everyone can have a say about what they like, and can all be accommodated

I'm perfectly happy with background music and equally happy with silence. It's just the choice of radio station that's driving me insane. But I can't just walk in as the new person and say "change the station please - I hate your music taste."
To answer PPs I have no idea if there is licence to play the radio or not.
Spotify would be great but it's a secure environment where a lot of websites and apps are blocked and Spotify is one of those. Can't even play the radio to myself through headphones as they recently blocked BBC Sounds.

i thought that you could download tunes to device and play from device -- no need for Spotify using wifi. Am pretty sure this is what DD does, she doesn't stream music but rather downloads favourite playlists.

Ditto BBC Sounds (programmes) or podcasts.

@RampantIvy

I haven't listened to a breakfast show properly since the brilliant Russ n Jono on Virgin back in the 90s (RIP Jono)

I used to love that show. The pranks they played were really funny.

They did a series of podcasts a couple of years ago and they were still as funny now as they were back then. I might have to have listen again! I liked them because they were genuinely funny and didn’t talk about themselves all the time like a lot of breakfast show DJs.

Sounds like my idea of hell. Not sure what you can do but you definitely have my sympathies.

I used to work for a dentist who loved organ music. It was piped through to all the surgeries whether we liked it or not.
Sounded like a funeral home

I don’t work in an office but I can imagine it being a tricky one to please everybody

It’s radio 2 all the way for me now