iPods in the Workplace: Diligence or Distraction?
Aplet, 32 and a former rock musician, rarely separates himself from his iPod, and that includes while he’s at work. When he’s not enjoying his downloaded music, from Bob Marley to the White Stripes, he listens to podcasts about Web style. Recently he plugged his iPod into the office’s audio system and blared holiday music, much to the delight of his fellow staffers.
“My iPod’s a lifesaver,” says Aplet. “If I’m coding a Internet website and I have to be focused and not distracted by conversations, I’ll put on a headset and tune out. Then I’ll just pound away on the keyboard.”
Tuning Out to Get Cranking
Office drones everywhere have been performing the same thing for years, and their ranks appear to be growing.A recent survey by Spherion, a recruiting and staffing organization, found that almost a third of U.S. workers now listen to music on their iPods or comparable devices while on the job. About 80 percent of those workers said the devices improve their job satisfaction and productivity.
“I am in favor of any technology that may be employed for entertainment although looking precisely like work to the casual observer,” jokes “Dilbert” cartoonist Scott Adams in an e-mail interview. “And any entertainment you can find during a company meeting is nicely worth the risk of being detected.”
Nevertheless, what do bosses and colleagues take into consideration the iPod invasion? That’s where issues can get complicated.
Closing Doors
Is listening to music at work really a increase to productivity, they wonder, or is it a distraction?
Does plugging into an iPod isolate listeners from their coworkers, shutting down natural communication and driving wedges between younger employees and their less-technologically savvy colleagues? Will an employee who’s wrapped up in a Jordin Sparks song hear her telephone, or a fire alarm?
What about security problems? Is it feasible for a disgruntled worker to download sensitive corporate info as easily as he can a song from iTunes?
Some businesses, usually smaller, tech-oriented firms, are fine with their employees firing up iPods and MP3 players on the job. Several, which includes international firms like National Semiconductor and Capital One Monetary, have even bought them in bulk for employees who can use them to listen to training sessions along with other organization communications at their desks, although traveling or even at home.
You’ve Got to Be Careful
Nonetheless, not all companies are excited about the invasion of the iPod folks.
Asked about iPods at Intel (Nasdaq: INTC) in Folsom, Calif., organization spokesperson Teri Munger pauses. “I have by no means observed anybody with an iPod in the workplace,” at least in her building, she says. The tiny players are not as innocuous as they look, some companies insist, and raise some serious workplace questions.
“They’re great devices,” says Barbara Pachter, an office-etiquette and communications specialist in New Jersey. “With all of these kinds of technologies, although, it is about how you use them within your individual work space. You have got to be careful.”
The Spherion survey, conducted by Harris Interactive (Nasdaq: HPOL), found that younger workers are most likely to listen to music on their iPods while working. Almost half of adults ages 25 to 29 say they do so, compared with 22 percent of workers ages 50 to 64.
Those iPods, MP3 players and also the like appear to be most commonly employed amongst workers with “more monotonous jobs,” like filing and photocopying, and solitary jobs that call for little interaction with colleagues or the public, says Brett Wiatre, Spherion’s Western region director of operations.
“In that kind of niche scenario, the music appears to maintain folks motivated and moving,” Wiatre says. Not All Workplaces Proper for iPod
Daniel Robin, a workplace consultant in Santa Cruz, Calif., agrees that the devices have their location at some work internet sites.
Nevertheless, at other people? Not so much.
“It appears fine if a person is flying solo, like an information-technology technician who spends a lot of time in transit to user internet sites,” Robin says. However, they’re “safety no-nos,” he says, in other circumstances.
“What if you can’t hear a forklift approaching?” Robin asks.
Or a colleague complaining?
Probably the most fantastic and irritating thing about iPods within the office, says Pachter, is their ability to cut workers off from the actual world.
“The ‘pro’ part of it is that their music doesn’t really bother other people, and it may help some people focus,” says Pachter, coauthor of the book New Rules@Work ($13.95, Prentice Hall, 272 pages).
“The downside is that folks get so caught up in what they’re listening to that they do not hear other people talking to them. When their headsets are on, it’s impossible to tell if they’re listening to you, or listening to their music. It drives me crazy!” iPod iSolation
“Dilbert” creator Adams, who has poked enjoyable at the phenomenon in his wildly common comic strip about life inside the work cubicle, says he doubts that anybody “is more productive with distractions than without having.”
“Still, anything that makes your coworkers less likely to talk to you has to be a good thing,” he jokes.
Dale Carnegie Training takes the matter a bit more seriously. The business advises caution when making use of iPods at work.
“Even if your office sanctions iPod use, first consider your certain position and goals,” Dale Carnegie’s Web site reads. “Are you new and trying to form good working relationships?
“The iPod might isolate you and discourage interaction with others.”
Setting Policies
At Intel, the decision about whether utilizing iPods is appropriate is up to individual managers, says Munger. Typically, it’s acceptable if “work just isn’t impacted, employees are acting in a safe manner and their cube mates aren’t being distracted,” she says.
Wiatre of Spherion says some companies are setting policies about when and how iPods could be employed on the job, just as they have placed restrictions on the use of cell phones and other personal technological devices.
“Some of our clients ban them,” he says. “Others are setting policies particular to the job as well as the work environment. We encourage employers to set established, consistent standards, so that there are no misunderstandings.”
Folsom startup SynapSense has no such policies. Most of its 40 employees, who hail from such far-flung locations as South Africa, India and Barbados, embrace iPods at work, says spokesperson Patricia Nealon.
“We have a extremely diverse set of people, and they listen to all kinds of various music,” she says. “In a cubicle environment where folks retain their own space and need to focus on what’s proper in front of them, it works out excellent.”
For software developers or code writers, anyway. Nealon herself leaves her iPod at house. “I’m a marketing individual, and I adore interacting with folks around me,” she says. “I only use my iPod when I work out.”
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