Radios in a office

[TalkToTheHand123]

Hi. Last few months I've been working from home but recently been told to return to the office.

Anyone struggle to concentrate in an office with a radio on? I feel terrible complaining / being a party pooper, but can't help losing my cool as it makes me go crazy. Does anyone else struggle?

Absolutely hate background radio in an office. Annoying and totally unprofessional if you have to speak on the phone.

This is the bane of my working life.

I work in an office where my colleagues have the local bbc radio station on constantly. The music is stuck in an 1980s time warp, and the same tunes are on loop.

No one needs to hear The Human League several times in one day, especially in the year 2025.

The other issue is that our office has super thick walls. Mobile signal is an issue and also the same for the radio. Which means several times a day the radio turns into a hissing racquet, which then distract my colleagues as they walk round the office trying to pick up a better signal.

i do enjoy days when it’s just me in the office as I can not put the radio on and just have Spotify on my headphones for a bit of company instead.

Noise in an office really annoys me.. especially the radio. However it’s the singing and the humming and drumming along to the radio that really gets to me.

I have my own office but the walls are paper thin and I can hear it all. Meaning my headset has to stay on all day, very annoying.

I miss it, when I first worked in the industry I'm still in, in one corner of the large open plan office was a radio, on quietly playing radio 2, and we would stop for a tea break for popmaster. It was hot desking and if you sat even half way across the office you couldn't hear it. We got told it had to go a couple of years after I started, because apparently we needed a broadcast licence because more than one person was listening to it (I work in the public sector). It really reminds me of the colleague whose radio it was, he died not long after and the radio still sits on the shelf but isn't used. I'm not in that office anymore but when I go back it's sad.

I have a colleague who likes the radio on but I've said I don't like it as it distracts me but that I am ok if she prefers it on so she has it on pretty quiet (because most other colleagues said they like it/ don't mind). Office room only accommodates 5 and it's all hot desks so I only have to hear it a couple of days a week. So worked out all very amicably tbh.

When the radio is on I put in ear phones and have music or a podcast on. Binaural beats really help me focus and I don't even notice them.

ETA: I guess it could be a problem if you can only work in silence. I don't mind noise that I have control over hence the earphones idea.

My radio is always on, but I am in my own in my office. It gets very lonely otherwise! If the radio isn’t on (forgot to turn it on, or the internet crashes) my brain fogs as everything starts bouncing around in there. The radio helps it to focus.

Unless your business has the correct licenses there are big fines for having the radio play in an office and the regulator is very sneaky about finding out - might be worth mentioning

It’s as if earbuds had never been invented.

Yabu I'm afraid. I can't work in a quiet office. I need chatting and a sensible volume radio in the background to focus.

We had a quiet week this week (managers take priority) and I made loads of mistakes. The sound of silence and tapping on keyboards is unbearable to me.

Not all workplaces allow employees to use earbuds. And not everyone can use them or headphones in general.

I banned radios in all offices - not only does it open the company to huge fines but it also sounds very unprofessional when on the phone and a raucous DJ can be heard in the background.

I hate having the radio on in an office, particularly if it's playing a genre of music I dislike or inane chatter. I find it very stressful and distracting, and I can't concentrate. It's also unprofessional. In general, I like my surroundings to be quiet and peaceful with no background noise or music at all, but I'm introverted and quite possibly ND. Thankfully, I'm lucky enough to work somewhere where I have my own quiet little office and don't have to tolerate other people's taste in music.

We all enjoy having the radio on at my workplace.

I absolutely hated when I worked in offices where it was deathly quiet. I much prefer to have music on. It’s a big reason why I’d never choose to work in an office again - unless I was in charge and had say over it!

Or telephones?

Last office I was in I had to keep leaving and going into a different room as I couldn't hear for the radio and people talking over the radio.

This radio is in the hall, outside the office, put on by someone in the other office.

I'll have to play something on my phone with earbuds in and ignore the office phone or people talking to me 😏

If you enjoyed music you could play it through earphones though.

The last time i was in the office someone had music on coming from their phone or laptop. It wasn’t loud from where I was sitting but immensely annoying as all I could hear was the ringadingsing of it. Not great for people with hearing issues or neurodiversity, just inconsiderate.

I work in a busy noisy environment so the heavy machinery and trains are white nouse to me now. What does annoy me is people playing whatever is on their phones out loud and people not listening or talking over me. When I have time for myself in my office I put on Spotify for an audiobook or a podcast.

I work mostly with DH and we have the radio on all day long. There is constant noise from machines/equipment/working so anyone calling hears background noise anyway, although we usually turn the radio down, or off for phone calls.
If I wfh I have to put the radio on as well

It isn't an office though, so probably different

Other people’s choice of radio would really annoy me. Added to that people talking over it and then me trying to talk on the phone would tip me over.

At home I always wear AirPods.

MIL always has the radio blasting out gold in her car and tried to talk to me when she is driving and I am sat in the back. If I say I can’t hear over the radio she won’t turn it it down she will shout louder!

I hate calling restaurant to book because of the back ground noise from radio.

TBF it's never occured to me that people wouldn't like background noise in an office. The radio at least prevents every single little conversation and cough being heard.
If I have the radio off I can hear every time someone opens a door or puts a pen down.
Mind, I work in an office by myself but with plenty of people coming and going.

If I had earphones in, I couldn't answer the phone or respond to colleagues or answer on the radio

I’ve never worked in an office with a radio but also never worked somewhere that’s as silent as the grave, either. There are always conversations going on between colleagues and sometimes it can get quite noisy, other times it’s much quieter, but rarely if ever deadly quiet, even when only half of us were in during Covid times. About 35 people in the office.

Radio would go down like a bucket of cold sick.

We had a very entitled person join our team who informed me that he would be having the radio on in our shared office. I informed him that we would not and he could use headphones if he wanted to listen to something. Drives me nuts.

You are not being unreasonable at all. It's mainly the DJs or adverts that I hate. But I think radios should be banned from offices!

I couldn't cope working in an office with the radio on. I've got long Covid with brain fog (plus menopause) and that would just fry my brain. I can't think straight if there is music playing. It is all I can focus on, however quiet.