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I know this is an old thread, but it addresses my distractions issue in the work place…so don’t mind me weighing in.
I have a knack for being assigned “cross-roads” cubicles every place I work…probably left vacant ’til they bring me on because no one wants them since they attract congregations of people who stop there before going separate directions down a dividing pathway or something. Some people don’t find it irritating, but I do. Some people probably enjoy a free sample of office gossip…but I don’t want to listen to it. I’m trying to listen to my own inner voice, keep my thoughts as collected as the box of restless kittens they are, and really just have a cubicle free of giggly girl chatter or male egos arguing sports. These days I at least have an MP3 player and earbuds, but the volume only goes so loud. I wish I were extroverted…I might get up the nerve to scoot my chair closer and stare at them while deliberately looking like I’m soaking up their conversation. But I’m a terrible actor.
Another note on music, though…I absolutely cannot stand having to listen to other people’s music in the work place – particularly if a) I can only hear it half way or only hear certain bits of what’s playing, b) there’s more than one radio / source of music, each one playing something different, and of course c) something playing at any volume that I simply don’t like…which is most of today’s music. I can actually listen to my own music on my laptop or MP3 player just fine and not be derailed in my work, which sounds like a contradiction, although it does nothing at all to help the habitual foot-tapping and leg-shaking I’ve done since I was 5. Oh well. Bottom line is that, out of consideration for people with issues with attention, distraction, etc., work places do need to be more accommodating to those of us who don’t want to hear it and whose all so important quality and quantity of work depends on reducing distractions we’re powerless to overcome.
The habitual music players have had iPods and MP3 players, not to mention headphones / earbuds, for decades…if they abhor silence (and how sad that is), they should keep their music to themselves. Where I work now is blissfully free of other people’s music, and even though I still get the chatty congregations outside my cubicle, at least that’s rare and there’s no silence-fearing, sing-along co-worker playing music adjacent to me. May my current luck never run out!
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