Feb
10
2012
iPods in the Workplace: Diligence or Distraction?
Author: Bill HuitingAplet, 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 design. Lately 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 Web 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 exact same factor for years, and their ranks seem to be growing.A recent survey by Spherion, a recruiting and staffing organization, discovered that nearly 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 enhance their job satisfaction and productivity.
“I am in favor of any technologies that will be utilized for entertainment while looking precisely like work to the casual observer,” jokes “Dilbert” cartoonist Scott Adams in an e-mail interview. “And any entertainment you can discover in the course of a business meeting is nicely worth the risk of being detected.”
Nevertheless, what do bosses and colleagues think about the iPod invasion? That is 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 is 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 information as easily as he can a song from iTunes?
Some companies, usually smaller, tech-oriented firms, are fine with their employees firing up iPods and MP3 players on the job. A few, which includes international firms like National Semiconductor and Capital 1 Monetary, have even purchased them in bulk for employees who can use them to listen to training sessions and other company communications at their desks, although traveling or even at residence.
You’ve Got to Be Careful
Nevertheless, not all organizations are excited about the invasion of the iPod individuals.
Asked about iPods at Intel (Nasdaq: INTC) in Folsom, Calif., business spokesperson Teri Munger pauses. “I have never seen anybody with an iPod in the workplace,” a minimum of in her developing, she says. The tiny players are not as innocuous as they look, some businesses insist, and raise some serious workplace questions.
“They’re fantastic devices,” says Barbara Pachter, an office-etiquette and communications specialist in New Jersey. “With all of these kinds of technologies, though, it’s 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 as well as the like seem to be most generally used among workers with “more monotonous jobs,” like filing and photocopying, and solitary jobs that need small interaction with colleagues or the public, says Brett Wiatre, Spherion’s Western region director of operations.
“In that kind of niche scenario, the music seems to keep individuals 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 sites.
Nevertheless, at others? Not so a lot.
“It appears fine if an individual is flying solo, like an information-technology technician who spends lots of time in transit to user sites,” Robin says. Nevertheless, they’re “safety no-nos,” he says, in other instances.
“What should you can’t hear a forklift approaching?” Robin asks.
Or a colleague complaining?
One of the most great and irritating factor about iPods in the office, says Pachter, is their capacity 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 people get so caught up in what they are listening to that they don’t hear others talking to them. When their headsets are on, it is 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 popular comic strip about life within the work cubicle, says he doubts that anybody “is more productive with distractions than without having.”
“Still, anything that makes your coworkers much 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 organization advises caution when making use of iPods at work.
“Even if your office sanctions iPod use, initial consider your particular position and objectives,” Dale Carnegie’s Internet site reads. “Are you new and attempting to form great working relationships?
“The iPod may possibly isolate you and discourage interaction with others.”
Setting Policies
At Intel, the decision about whether utilizing iPods is proper is up to individual managers, says Munger. Generally, it is acceptable if “work is not impacted, employees are acting in a safe manner and their cube mates are not being distracted,” she says.
Wiatre of Spherion says some businesses are setting policies about when and how iPods could be employed on the job, just as they’ve placed restrictions on the use of cell phones along with other individual technological devices.
“Some of our clients ban them,” he says. “Others are setting policies specific to the job as well as the work environment. We encourage employers to set established, consistent standards, to ensure that you’ll find 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 different music,” she says. “In a cubicle environment where people retain their own space and want to focus on what’s right in front of them, it works out excellent.”
For software developers or code writers, anyway. Nealon herself leaves her iPod at home. “I’m a marketing individual, and I adore interacting with individuals around me,” she says. “I only use my iPod when I work out.”
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