Music Fights

[gremcint]

Oi ok my vote will always be for no music if asked but I've come to accept that I am the only human being in existence that feels this way.

So on Labour day Tuesday I got to listen to my coworkers argue on and off for half an hour about what music to listen to while we worked. First someone puts on some country (which I actually like) but someone doesn't like this and bitches and whines and then as a "joke" unplugs the music. Well they plug it back in but after a while we let someone else have a turn (phones hooked up to speaker display). And they play this terrible miley cyrus song (searching on youtube reveals it was "we can't stop" which to me is nails on a fucking chalkboard) fortunately we switch to something else. My coworker Mr Sarcastic switches to some really fucking weird song that nobody likes and my manager bans him from playing more songs and she is finally fed up with the bickering and just says pick something and leave it which finally happens when my other coworker who has decent taste puts on her music and leaves it. But oh my god people it's just music we're scheduled to be here an hour and half after close can we just get some work done.



Then last night it's just a couple of us for half an hour after close and the PA is about play "I've got you babe" for the 500th time that day and I decide I don't want to listen to that song that time (especially given the last half of our version is nothing but them just chanting the song name over and over again for 1 minute solid) and cue my coworker complaining that I cut the music and I said I really don't want to listen that one song and I'll turn it back on after. So cue two coworkers who both start singing the song themselves just to bug me while laughing at me, and there I am asking them "please stop singing that song" multiple times. Here's a little known fact if I'm asking to politely stop something like that it means you are really bugging me and I'm resisting the urge to yell and swear at you especially consider I was tired, stressed and had a headache after dealing with the stupidest people ever and having break cut short because of them. (don't ask)

I'm still annoyed about this the next day.

[NorthernZel]

Just playing a generic radio channel isn't an option? Thus, noone decides.

[TheSHAD0W]

I second the radio idea; among other things, it's possible for your company to get dinged by ASCAP for a public performance license. (This isn't necessary if you're playing a radio station.) (I'm also assuming you're in the US, things may be different in other countries.)

[bainsidhe]

Ugh, I used to run into this when I worked overnight fast food. I'd turn it to an easy-listening station, which of course meant older and/or calmer music. Another employee would flip to a hip-hop/rap station, which I loathed and made me want to put my fist through something. And back and forth and back and forth. I don't miss working fast food.

[gremcint]

we have generic crap play over the pa and unless someone actually has a radio with them....

[MoonCat]

Sounds like the Save-a-Lot I used to shop at. One day the employees were having "dueling radio stations." Country; then rock; then back to country; then back to rock. It went on the entire time we were at the store.

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

And this would be why many workplaces, including my own, forbid radios in employee-only areas.

It leads to fights over muscial choices, and ultimately lost productivity.

[ComputerNecromancer]

Many years back, I worked in a nursing home kitchen. I'm not sure if it was to avoid complaints from the residents or what, but the radio was tuned to a local station that (back then) played lots and lots of old time radio.

So I washed dishes while listening to The Shadow, Fibber McGee & Molly and The Lone Ranger to name but a few.

The one exception was Sunday night when the station carried the Dr. Demento show. :-)

[Monterey Jack]

Personally, I would rather listen to NO music at work. Once you've heard the same three-dozen songs a thousand times (in a playlist that was probably last updated circa 2004), it's nails on a blackboard. And I find it very difficult to concentrate on reading whatever magazine/book I have with my on break when there's music playing, even generic "background" music. I don't understand why so many public buildings force you to listen to music. I'd rather go shopping or have lunch at a place where there's no music or television playing.

[bbbr]

There's only one radio station that reliably comes in at my job. Luckily it plays music (for the most part) that'll I'll listen to without too many repeats of the same Black Sabbath song. Had the same problem the old location and the running joke became that "it wasn't a good day if "Crazy Train" hadn't been played yet..."

The cd player in the radio was somehow "damaged" after one coworker decide to "treat" everyone to 8 solid hours of nothing but his favorite obscure bluegrass collection. If your bluegrass is your thing then rock on (or whatever it is you do to bluegrass music) but don't get all pissy when someone tries to play a disc of their choosing instead of another one of yours.

[Geek King]

Best policy I've worked under dealing with this issue: Rotating who gets to choose the station that day. One employee each day got to choose the music for their entire shift, then they weren't in the running again until everyone got a turn.

Surprisingly little whining, since it was ultimately fair for everyone.

[wolfie]

If there's a problem with people being late on a regular basis, management could implement Geek King's solution with a twist - if you're late at any point in the "cycle", you forfeit your next turn at choosing the station. Great way of creating a minor punishment for behaviour that the company wants to correct, but is too low-level for a formal writeup to be appropriate.

[dalesys]

My closing earworm song last night at the bar was "Poisoning Pigeons At The Park" ... and two girls danced to it ...

[Plague*Star]

yeah, one place I worked had a "no music" rule. Which actually made sense, 5 different people blasting boom boxes over the machinery would have sucked. But they also had a "no coffee" rule. Really.
Where I work now, we requested NOT to have a speaker in our office. So I don't have to listen to what I call the "all Journey, all the time" station the secretary puts on. We have Pandora, but everybody picks stuff...we had a Sinatra/Opera week a while back that was painful. Somebody requests 50 Cent/emimen/whoever and that really grates.

I could do without the music or TV blasting most everywhere I go. Background noise in enough. Exception? the bathroom. I'd really LIKE to hear music rather than the alternative...

P*S

[dalesys]

... Exception? the bathroom. I'd really LIKE to hear music rather than the alternative...

The noisemaker in the next stall isn't alive?!?