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?

I like the radio playing in the background. Luckily, so do my colleagues. I don’t avidly listen to it. It’s just on in the background.

I don’t see why people are saying they should be banned!

Very very old school. That is what ear phones are for. I hy should that whole office be inconvenienced because some want it on.

I would just say ‘I’m struggling a bit to concentrate with the radio on. Can we turn it right down or use earphones?”. Not being a party pooper - people are there to work.

What cracked me up at my last place, they would put the radio on and after a few mins go for a couple hour meeting and leave me in the office alone with it left on.

When people refer to it as background noise, I'm talking about a high volume level as if in a bar.

Using a radio in your office requires the business to pay for a PRS licence annually. The same is true for many other workplaces. For an idea of the costs...
Audible Area in Square Metres
1 - 600sqm = £195.40
601 - 650sqm = £212.32
and so on...
More details at: https://pplprs.co.uk/themusiclicence/sectors/offices-workplaces/

Maybe the bosses will get rid of the radio if they find out they have to pay for it to be on?

I hate it. Work in a call centre and it’s hard enough to hear as it is with everyone else on the phone and people constantly in and out

I wished I'd known a couple of years ago. I'll save this as a plan b if I struggle to argue as I don't want to come across as a twistypoop.

I'm with you. I find it particularly unprofessional, in offices, where clients visit the reception. I can't concentrate with background noise on.

We had to start paying this about 10 years ago, but iirc it was then based on the number of people in a workspace rather than the area.

I much prefer to work with background music, which we do have most of the time. Occassionally others put on sport, or a station that is all debates/phone ins and i hate it!

A charity shop near me has Greatest Hits Radio on all day, would they have to pay for a license? Never knew this, every day's a school day!

we used to, when it was next to me and i could control the volume, to very quiet.
other radio stations i could not bare, and lately we moved into another office where they had the radio on, it was just awful.
since i am not in that office another colleague complained and so they now dont have the radio on.
if i want the radio on, i use headphones to hear it, on the pretext of not annoying others, but also because if i dont like a certain tune <<anything by take that and oasis>> i can mute it!

I would hate it. I don't like listening to music and the vacant chatter of local radio DJs would drive me daft. I get that there are some situations you need to mask difficult conversations - our GP surgery has the radio playing so you can't hear what a GP is saying to a hard of hearing patient behind a closed door. Most offices aren't like that though.

I volunteer in a charity shop (one of the big chains) and they play Radio 2. We have a licence. https://pplprs.co.uk/themusiclicence/sectors/shops-stores/

I’d rather hear the radio that the noise of everyone in the office on the phone. The noise is deafening.
In our open plan office is noisy anyway.
I’m envious of people working in quiet offices.

The radio doesn't bother me, it's the awful out-of-tune singing that makes me want to throttle myself with the blind cords...

I need absolute quiet to be able to work at my best. I've never understood how people can concentrate and think and work well with an inane noise blaring on. Thank god I work mostly from home these days.

I actually wish that we were allowed to play the radio in our office. I have never liked total silence, even when reading or studying I like a bit of background noise. Everyone is different though.

I still hear songs that remind me of revising for my GCSEs in my bedroom with radio 1 on!

We all love the radio on in the background. Very stressful environment so it's nice to have it burbling away. When I'm alone in the office 'out of hours' I have radio 4 and it's bliss.

Hate it, can’t tune it out and it adds to the overstimulation of an open-plan office.

I work in a pre school and the manager likes the radio on so I have the noise of 30 2-4 year olds and the radio, makes my head want to explode!!

You see, it would just make me more stressed. The noise just agitates and irritates me. Even the thought of trying to work in an office with a radio on makes me feel all tense. It would definitely make me less productive and my work less good than it might have been.

30 plus years of office work & there has always been a radio wherever I have been, it’s never occurred to me that some offices don’t have this.

I found it really hard to concentrate with the radio on when I first started my current job. Now I don’t like it when the radio isn’t on! So much so that when I wfh, I now put my own radio on. We don’t have it on loud though. If it’s on too loud it drives me nuts.

It's a terrible idea, nobody should be forced to listen to others choice of music etc. Those who want it should wear headphones, (although if I was a manager I'd be wondering how they could work like that).

Years ago, we had a new woman start and on her first morning she asked that the radio be turned off.
We all hated her forever........