Alright spags, help me out with something here.
A lot of us work in offices, right? You, like me, work with other people, right? People there have telephones that ring that they have to answer, or maybe once in awhile a co-worker or boss will have to ask them a question, right?
Do people at your office work while listening to MP3 players? I'm talking with the earbuds. It seems to be the big thing here in my office. Honestly, it's kind of irritating. I should have to shout at someone to get their damn attention. I shouldn't have to go tell someone that their damn phone is ringing. I shouldn't have to go wave my arms and jump up and down to get someone to pay attention so I can tell them that someone else is trying to get their attention.
Is this just my kooky office that does this or does this happen at your office to?
Last I checked laptops had built-in speakers.
GAAARRRRRR!!!!!
:argh!:
I work with earbuds, but I keep the volume down so I can hear when the phone rings.
No one wants me to turn my speakers on.
The only time a phone rings for ever is if someone in that section is totally gone. No one listens to music period. Any kind of fun is forbidden while working.
Thinkgeek has office warfare supplies
A usb remote control turrent may be the answer your looking for
Quote from: Sir Coyote on November 12, 2010, 06:49:35 PM
The only time a phone rings for ever is if someone in that section is totally gone. No one listens to music period. Any kind of fun is forbidden while working.
You're in the wrong branch of the armed forces.
-Suu
They let me walk around bombs and missiles, you know.
I work with earbuds in all day long, but nobody ever calls for me. I don't even have a phone on my desk. On occasion someone will need to tell me something or ask me something, and sometimes they will need to poke me in the back of the head or something... doesn't seem like the end of the world to me.
Okay, maybe I just work with inattentive idiots.
http://www.thinkgeek.com/geektoys/warfare/e200/
Ahem
Quote from: Suu on November 12, 2010, 06:54:10 PM
Quote from: Sir Coyote on November 12, 2010, 06:49:35 PM
The only time a phone rings for ever is if someone in that section is totally gone. No one listens to music period. Any kind of fun is forbidden while working.
You're in the wrong branch of the armed forces.
-Suu
They let me walk around bombs and missiles, you know.
We aren't even allowed to have fun during PT.
"So we are going to run to the lake"
"No we can't the lake outside the designated runnign area."
'Fuck it lets run it anyways"
20 min later the PLT SGT is getting his ass reamed by a random sergeant major for runnign where we were.
Next week
"And I guess we will run around this small 3 mile around where everyone eles is running and we have seen the same shit."
"Fuck this lets jsut do one lap and end PT"
15 min laters
"Um fuck...it's only 0700. Fuck it go conduct hygiene workcall at 0900"
Yes Ft Lewis is fucking retarded.
Okay, but I like my job and don't want to be fired.
Quote from: Rev. What's-His-Name? on November 12, 2010, 06:57:58 PM
Okay, maybe I just work with inattentive idiots.
Or maybe it's that I work in cogville, and Hoops works in porn. It sounds like your job requires more social interaction between employees.
Pretty much. Anyway, I'm just venting. Pay no attention to the crotchety old man.
I wear full size headphones and have the sound turned up loud enough to drowned out everything but the PA and the phone. I share a cube with another Engineer and he's constantly got people hanging out and bullshitting right behind me. The nature of my work means that I have to stay very focused on what I'm doing to keep from missing something and having a drawing need additional revisions, and it's hard to do that when people are hanging out in the hallway and behind me yakking it up.
The phone, when it rings, is never for me.
I have decent peripheral vision and everyone knows all they have to do is walk up next to me and I'll pull the headphones off to answer whatever question they're asking.
Similar. in cube farm, surrounded by chatty cathys. headphones block out 95%, phone has a light on it and is in direct line of sight.
I think from now on I'm just going to break into an Irish Jig when I'm trying to get someone's attention. Perhaps the sheer awkwardness and embarrassment will get them to wise up.
I endorse this course of action.
Quote from: Rev. What's-His-Name? on November 12, 2010, 07:04:13 PM
Pretty much. Anyway, I'm just venting. Pay no attention to the crotchety old man.
Just pop a few foam darts into the back of their heads when they aren't answering the phones.
Or that.
Quote from: Rev. What's-His-Name? on November 12, 2010, 07:07:34 PM
I think from now on I'm just going to break into an Irish Jig when I'm trying to get someone's attention. Perhaps the sheer awkwardness and embarrassment will get them to wise up.
I mean, I'm already the office weirdo, so it's not like that is ever going to improve. I might as well play it to my advantage.
I can get fired for not wearing headphones. :lulz: But I work isolated at home, and headphones are supposed to isolate us even further from distraction.
I make my living listening to people online and judging them. But I have to answer the phone and chat as soon as it comes up if it's from work, too, so I have to be aware of those things at the least. It's a balancing act.
But RWHN, I'd be very pissed if I needed to get ahold of people and interact with them and WORK at getting their attention in order to do so.
I sometimes wear an earbud in one ear, generally for watching youtube videos.
the earphone thing isn't common at all over here.
if I were you, I'd take to shooting people with rubber bands if they don't respond to a "Hey."
Used to have 1 earbud in, other ear on my phone. Got out of the habit, and never really picked it back up.
Other folks in the office; I'll knock down their cube walls, or sneak up to 1 in. behind them if they remain oblivious. If they fail getting the phone then they deserve the hole they're digging.
nobody in my office ever wears earplugs. because we actually have more fun talking shit to each other all day than we would have listening to music.
RWHN, does your office not have email? Is it a frequent and expected part of the job that your co-workers will have to interrupt each other's work for urgent matters that demand immediate attention? If yes, then it sounds like the earbud issue is one that should be brought up with management as a matter of a policy that needs adjustment. If no, then maybe people are simply trying not to have their work needlessly interrupted by people who haven't figured out how to use email for non-urgent matters instead of interrupting other people's workflow with trivial demands for attention.
Workplaces I've been, the rule was (or should have been) that you don't wear them, unless you got a good reason to have to zone out and be shut off from the world to absolutely concentrate. Which is a thing programmers sometimes got to do, and since it's a weird mathematical symbolic zone that takes effort/time to get into, it is allowed.
It's also a reason why certain blogs on software engineering management call for private offices for programmers. But I never seen a place where they have that, also it seems kinda lonely. You need to be able to crack geek jokes with your coworkers, after all.
Quote from: Nigel on November 12, 2010, 09:35:55 PM
RWHN, does your office not have email? Is it a frequent and expected part of the job that your co-workers will have to interrupt each other's work for urgent matters that demand immediate attention? If yes, then it sounds like the earbud issue is one that should be brought up with management as a matter of a policy that needs adjustment. If no, then maybe people are simply trying not to have their work needlessly interrupted by people who haven't figured out how to use email for non-urgent matters instead of interrupting other people's workflow with trivial demands for attention.
he's talking about people who listen to their mp3 player so loud they can't tell that their phone is ringing. That's a legit issue, not a matter of RWHN just needlessly interrupting people with "trivial demands for attention".
if given the choice between typing out an e-mail and standing up, walking 25 feet, and asking a quick question, I almost always take the latter. If you send an e-mail you might not get an answer for
hours and that can totally bone your productivity.
also - this is probably an issue that can be solved without going to management to make a new policy, that sort of shit pisses everybody off.
I think that's why my company has a policy of keeping close eyes and ears on for contact from colleagues. It's seriously grounds for dismissal if you can't be contacted within a moment's notice over and over again.
Where I work, company policy states that headphones of any sort must be kept low enough to hear fire alarms, general conversation etc. I tend to use this as an excuse to eavesdrop whenever my earbuds are in. My supervisor is talking to someone from another department? Pause mp3 player and listen while making convincing typing noises or staring intently at a spreadsheet. After all, this info may be useful later on. If someone talks to me while I have the earbuds in, I make a point of removing them and using body language to convey that my attention has been captured. Moral of the story-if someone doesn't hear something they're either intent on destroying their eardrums or they're fucking with you. Call them to task, 'cause either way they're doing it wrong.
Quote from: Cramulus on November 12, 2010, 09:49:51 PM
Quote from: Nigel on November 12, 2010, 09:35:55 PM
RWHN, does your office not have email? Is it a frequent and expected part of the job that your co-workers will have to interrupt each other's work for urgent matters that demand immediate attention? If yes, then it sounds like the earbud issue is one that should be brought up with management as a matter of a policy that needs adjustment. If no, then maybe people are simply trying not to have their work needlessly interrupted by people who haven't figured out how to use email for non-urgent matters instead of interrupting other people's workflow with trivial demands for attention.
he's talking about people who listen to their mp3 player so loud they can't tell that their phone is ringing. That's a legit issue, not a matter of RWHN just needlessly interrupting people with "trivial demands for attention".
if given the choice between typing out an e-mail and standing up, walking 25 feet, and asking a quick question, I almost always take the latter. If you send an e-mail you might not get an answer for hours and that can totally bone your productivity.
also - this is probably an issue that can be solved without going to management to make a new policy, that sort of shit pisses everybody off.
I didn't say that
he was, but that
people in the office interrupting others work frequently, without an urgent reason, might be a contributing factor. He says he's had to try to get people's attention to let them know that someone else was trying to get their attention. Maybe the person with the earbuds was making it hard for them to get his/her attention on purpose.
If they are working on something and they don't want to be interrupted by the phone, it might be most reasonable to ask them to please turn off their ringer when they turn on their music. Nobody wants to have to listen to someone else's phone ringing interminably, but other than that, unless their missed calls are his problem, he might find it easier to adapt to the existing office culture than to try to change it.
Quote from: leln on November 13, 2010, 01:11:12 AM
Where I work, company policy states that headphones of any sort must be kept low enough to hear fire alarms, general conversation etc. I tend to use this as an excuse to eavesdrop whenever my earbuds are in. My supervisor is talking to someone from another department? Pause mp3 player and listen while making convincing typing noises or staring intently at a spreadsheet. After all, this info may be useful later on.
hah I did that all the time :)
I don't know anything about RWHN's work environment, I'm just putting some thoughts out there. I've worked in offices where being interrupted was a serious problem, and it was incredibly annoying. And, in one place I couldn't turn my ringer off, and the dumb chick in the cube next to mine, who was also constantly interrupting my work to tell me things that weren't urgent or often even relevant to my job, would tell me my phone was ringing when I was sitting right there, and was letting it go to voicemail on purpose because I was in the middle of something important and time-sensitive that I needed to finish, and I knew the call wasn't something I needed to pick up. It was nerve-wracking. That's the crappiest part about working in a cube environment; not being able to defend your workflow boundaries against well-meaning officemates who think they're helping you do your job better, but are actually hindering you getting it done at all.
Quote from: Triple Zero on November 13, 2010, 01:23:14 AM
Quote from: leln on November 13, 2010, 01:11:12 AM
Where I work, company policy states that headphones of any sort must be kept low enough to hear fire alarms, general conversation etc. I tend to use this as an excuse to eavesdrop whenever my earbuds are in. My supervisor is talking to someone from another department? Pause mp3 player and listen while making convincing typing noises or staring intently at a spreadsheet. After all, this info may be useful later on.
hah I did that all the time :)
Hey, it helps me keep details straight if my supervisor forgets who said what or when they need the statistics by. I'm sure they know that I hear more than I let on, but as long as I'm using the information to increase departmental efficiency no one will call me on it. The fact that every now and the I get a useful tidbit of workplace gossip is entirely coincidental, I promise.
Nigel: I totally agree about interrupted workflow. I can't count the number of times a 5-10 minute task has blossomed into 2+ hours of effort because
people keep asking me how to use the fucking postage machine, which I think is older than I am. There's a happy medium of personal productivity and humoring coworkers, and if anyone finds it please ask them to explain it to me.
This reminds me why I still choose to work from home. Sure, it's a bit lonely, but damn, I just have WAY less that gets me down about my job without politics to get in my way.
Though it's terribly isolating on those 8-hour shifts.
Quote from: Nigel on November 13, 2010, 01:26:39 AM
I don't know anything about RWHN's work environment, I'm just putting some thoughts out there. I've worked in offices where being interrupted was a serious problem, and it was incredibly annoying. And, in one place I couldn't turn my ringer off, and the dumb chick in the cube next to mine, who was also constantly interrupting my work to tell me things that weren't urgent or often even relevant to my job, would tell me my phone was ringing when I was sitting right there, and was letting it go to voicemail on purpose because I was in the middle of something important and time-sensitive that I needed to finish, and I knew the call wasn't something I needed to pick up. It was nerve-wracking. That's the crappiest part about working in a cube environment; not being able to defend your workflow boundaries against well-meaning officemates who think they're helping you do your job better, but are actually hindering you getting it done at all.
I work in a tiny office. There are only 6 program people in the office. That is, of the 10 staff, 6 of us actually work on our health promotion topic areas. The other 4 are support staff. We are pretty much a team. While we all have our separate work plans, we're all pretty much working on the same goal of improving health in our county. So, this means we are fairly regularly getting calls from the public with questions regarding our topic areas. It is pretty important that when our phones ring, we answer them. If you miss too many calls from the public, that can impact reputation amongst the public. It's not so much that people are using earbuds, but it's the fact that the way they are being used seems to be distracting and keeping them from being as responsive to the public and co-workers as they should. And we don;'t bother each other willy nilly. If someone walks into your office with a question, it is usually a very important, and timely, question.