What Is Psychological Coercion?, El Dorado County Fatal Accident, Articles N

If I have to take my hearing aids out to use earbuds, not only do I have to worry about losing the (VERY expensive) little devils, but when someone wants to talk to me, I would have to not only remove the earbuds but put at least one of my hearing aids in before I can converse. I do recognize that this isnt the way everyone lives, but I think that where thats the case its a problem. If your job is more independent, is in a large open space, etc, then I can see the uses for it, but otherwise I find it kind of ridiculous. Ick. If you choose to purchase earbuds, try to make sure they are noticeable, or consider adding a sign to your office door, computer, or workspace to let people know you are wearing headphones. And then running to HR? Ive had to tell customer service reps who have heavy phones they have to remove their headphones. And unless the rule encouraged bullying, harrassment, discrimination (which it might have, but we have no information to support that) hightailing it to HR seems VERY extreme for this situation UNLESS, theres a history of difficulty between these two. I wont say that this is absolutely factually the case, but at least I usually consider a perk to be something more like my company gave me a pair of expensive noise-cancelling headphones rather than Im allowed to do a normal thing that theres no business reason for not allowing me to do that latter (and also, that if there is a business reason that its not appropriate to grant exceptions as a reward) I do consider to be a given. support. Youre not in programming, youre not sat in front of a screen reading or generating code all day. If you cant point to a serious, concrete reason for this rule, itll appear arbitrary and youll burn up any goodwill you had with those employees and be in danger of losing them quickly. Yeah. But, I feel both are wrong in this scenario (while also believing the scenario should never exist in the first place). If youre unsure how loud is too loud, ask the people around you if they can hear what youre listening to. and then go to HR (??????!?!?!!? TL/dr: Youre not going to change DV victims behavior; telling on her will not accomplish OPs desired result. Regarding safety issues: Obviously, headphones and heavy machinery don't go well together, but over-the-ears hearing protection exists. It is not clear in your comment that you are only speaking to the people you believe are just being babies whining about noise and headphones, and not to the people who actually need them. If I werent allowed to wear the earbuds, Id have to work harder to block out the ambient noise, which would make me LESS responsive to people trying to get my attention. But they are also more difficult for the visitor to notice when s/he walks up and starts talking. If I wasnt able to listen to music, Id be far more stressed than I already am. And as IT people, they really wont lack for other workplaces that do allow headphones. Its about being open to the needs of your employees, who then become much better employees. 9rM5SM>&o Not only does that set up a very adversarial power dynamic, but you miss out on the collective brain power of a lot of really smart, talented people who might have information you dont have that would affect your decisions that way. I dont think its helpful to make up our minds that there must be one particular thing going on when we just dont know enough. Over the ear headphones also enable me to hear more of what is going on around me, thus making me MORE responsive.