For people to use ear buds or head phones at home or in the office

[Whyhaveibeencutoutofmamsnot]

Why do people have these things in or over their ears when they are at work (not those being worn for health and safety reasons) but listening to music or podcasts in the office and in a job where they need to answer the phone or work questions from colleagues. It may help them concentrate on emails or working on a document etc and want to get on with it without disruption - we would all like that but unfortunately human contact is part of the job where I work.
DH does this at home as well - and all very well on the odd days he is home on his own - I work outside home full time and we do need to talk sometimes without the look of stop disturbing me.
Am I being unreasonable in objecting to ear buds?

So I can concentrate when there's constant inane chat going on around me.

I wfh but used to wear one in the office. I cannot cope with lots of conversations at once. I find it too over stimulating. One in allowed me to concentrate on what I was doing while meaning I could hear what was around me

I wear them at work to filter out the constant drone of the girl two desks over, who insists on narrating her whole day.

They're linked to my phone, so I can answer the phone when needed, and yes, it does stop constant interruptions from people stopping to chat as they pass my desk.

When I work from home I'm in the living room. I can't imagine ignoring DH for my whole working day when he's sitting in the living room or walking through! It's no different to speaking to people in the office

It's not terribly healthy to have them in all the time. I don't see why you'd do it home unless you thought playing the music or whatever out loud would bother people.

because I'm on calls a lot of the day and using blue tooth ear buds so I get stand up.

I don't have earbuds in all the time when I'm in the office but I do sometimes if I'm working on something very complicated and I need to avoid distractions. If I couldn't do that then I'd have to take my laptop and go and find a quiet meeting room to go and sit in instead. That would make it even harder for my colleagues to get my attention if needed.

At home I'll sometimes have one in while doing the washing up and listening to a podcast. Some of the stuff I listen to isn't particularly child friendly and I know that if I've got the windows open my next-door neighbours can hear what I'm playing out loud.

The last place I worked no one wore headphones. We were all expected to listen out for each other's phones and answer them if necessary. I was also expected to keep an ear on work related conversations so I could keep abreast of what was happening, at the same time as concentrating on the task I was doing sufficiently to not make any mistakes. It was a bit ridiculous really.

Our workplace got rid of all phones on desks, its teams call or a mobile if you’re management.

I wear them at work. It's open plan and one of the women just screeches and sings all day long. I can still respond if someone wants me specifically. I also wear them on public transport and to the supermarket because the general public seem to have forgotten their manners in the last five years or so. Screaming kids, people shouting into phones, phones playing videos etc. Toning down the noise for my own well-being hurts no-one.

I hate silence and I also hate the inane chatter of the people that come in and sit behind me every other day

Because of have auditory processing issues and also can’t cope with the background noise of other people. Working life has been crappy for me since they did away with small offices (used to be 2 people to an office and I shared with the blind lady who needed silence anyway to hear her text to speech).

Some use it as avoidance for sure....work, homelife or social interaction with a partner/adult they really don't want to be with anymore. Like every device they need boundaries if you have kids at home I think it's awful your putting a barrier up to them spontaneously talking or opening up to you....before them if it wasn't suitable for kids you waited until they were in bed now it's crack on and ignore them.

I'm with you OP husband has them in at home constantly never hears me and I have to get up , chase him around wave at him, tap his shoulder to then be glared at whilst he removes them with a snappy 'what???' I am constantly repeating myself as he never hears first time.

To get my backbone up even more he doesn't have them in when he does his duolingo practice, the only time when they might be preferable. I get the rage 😅

I couldn't do my job or cope with being in an open plan office without wearing my ear buds

I use mine in the office to signal to my lovely colleagues that I dont want to be bothered unless it’s important. It’s like closing my office door but I don’t have my own office.

i also find that putting them in triggers my brain to go into concentration mode. Sometimes!

Even being in an office with one other person, I find it absolutely impossible to concentrate on my work. Noise cancelling headphones help a bit.

Thankfully when I do have to go to the office, most of the time I manage to secure private workspace.

I out mine in if I need to focus on something. I ask my colleagues if they need anything from me before I do and tel them to give me a wave if anything urgent crops up. Doesn't cause any issues. If someone wants to talk to me they Slack me, and if my phone rings it's right next to me on the desk so I can see it's ringing and answer it!

I had to ban them because team members were using them to avoid taking their fair share of phone calls (integral part of the role).

The anti-social aspect wouldn't bother me, though.

I don't like them for this reason. DH wears them in the house all the time and I feel like I can't talk to him at all. It's very antisocial. (And I'm not a big talker, to address a pp)

Open plan office with staff who are loud and never stop talking (and the place has fucking awful acoustics). I quite often have airpods in running just noise cancellation if I need to concentrate on something. Can hear/see my phone ringing just fine, can hear if someone's talking to me - but I don't have to hear the completely unrelated service at the other side of the office discussing who snogged who on Love Island last night.

It's actually a reasonable adjustment for my autism that I'm OK to use them in the office (although anyone is as long as no one else can hear them - but I asked for it to be documented for just the sort of MN professionally pissed off at others type individuals that rear their heads occasionally).

My DH seems not to hear or remember about 95% of what I say, if he was wearing ear buds that would at least give him an excuse! 🤣

Listening to music whilst working was forbidden in my work place pre pandemic. Those dealing directly with customers (it’s an academic faculty) aren’t permitted to wear headphones.

Personally, I think it’s a bit dangerous for maintenance and book fetching or book moving library staff to wear them but some do.

In our office no one does except for online meetings on Teams. We did have one staff member who did a while ago and it was a bit unfriendly, I sat next to her but felt the didn’t really know her. She used to wear them even when she was in direct online helpdesk queries. Whilst that’s not talking directly as in face to face it is just about a live chat as in messaging so I don’t think it was really a good idea to be listening to pop tracks at the same time.

On the other hand, another colleague says listening to podcasts is the only way she can bear being in same office as the chap that sits nearest to her. She kind of has a point 🤣

Research shows it takes 20 minutes to get fully back into a task once interrupted. They improve productivity - something employers are keen on.

Yeah we are only allowed them whilst sitting at our desks. We’re not allowed to wear them walking around, we’re also not allowed to text or be on the phone whilst walking. We have to stop and stand to the side. Health and safety rules for the whole site inside and outside of the building until we leave.