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?

We all wear a single earpiece as that’s how we answer work calls, no one has had a physical telephone on their desk in years! So it’s the same when wfh home unless there is no one around, and no background noise, which cannot be guaranteed with neighbours etc. Plus if wfh and the doorbell goes (say), if I’m wearing an earpiece I don’t have to pause the call to go and answer it. In between yes I listen to music, as do my colleagues. I switch it off or take off earpiece when a colleague comes over. Not exactly a hardship! And yeah, interrupting me when I’m wfh is enraging unless it’s an emergency as my work is time critical, and an interruption can really slow me down as need time then to get back into the flow of what I’m doing.

Open plan offices are the problem.

well, the existence of some
inconsiderate people in open plan offices rather than open plan offices per se

i have always had a great experience of open plan offices and much prefer to lots of little offices

Yes you are. Every person and every job is different.

I started wearing them because I had a colleague who slurped his tea and ate breakfast & lunch at his desk, chewing with his mouth open. The noise was nauseating.

Yes the only reason the people who sit behind me haven't met a grisly and painful death is because I use ear plugs to block out their idiotically inane chat.

If you must chat, at least chat about something interesting or, ideally, salacious. Not 8 hours of drivel about which bus you caught for work and whether you have one slice of cheese or two in your sandwiches today

I sometimes wear them in the morning because otherwise I would be serving DH divorce papers before he'd got half way through his breakfast

Agree. Open plan offices should work well but people do need to understand the etiquette and move away for long conversations etc

Because sometimes I want to get on with writing notes or referral without discussing what Tina did at the weekend or where Lesley’s grandkids are going on holiday.

Equally sometimes I just need 5 minutes to myself at home and sticking on a podcast and making the dinner is all I can do to avoid sensory overwhelm.

Yes as a manager I never minded ear plugs/head phones for staff. That said, it wasn't a call centre type environment, each person had their own caseload so there was no issue around avoiding calls.

we do need to talk sometimes without the look of stop disturbing me

You are disturbing them. They need to focus.
If you need to talk to them you can either wait for a moment when they aren't focusing on something else, or drop them an email asking when would be a good time to bend their ear to something for 10 minutes.

Don't you see that the other side of this coin is someone who is frustrated by the self-centred colleague who thinks her minor queries and updates are so important they can't possibly wait till they have met their deadline/finished their current task and are ready to change tracks to deal with some completely different priority.

Last job I wasn't allowed as I was working in a customers office and it was one of their rules.

Now I work at home and do because it's too quiet and unnerving after years in offices with background noise.

As long as they aren't loud that everybody can hear around them or preventing phones being answered I wouldn't really care.

In my office it's code for DND, I'm concentrating.

I use them on my office day some of the time. It stops people bothering me with anything other than important matters.