Yeah, I get the word choice too, but its one of those things where LW just has to decide on a course of action and determine not to let it be weird a brisk tap on their desk/cube wall and a cheery wave? (Exercises, sure. At least they do actually act on help tickets now, in less than 9 months. When the police arrived, the mans portable player was still playing music next to his body. Yes. The Substance Use Disorder Prevention, Treatment, and Recovery Act will be proposed . I cant. Headphones are more visible vs earbuds so its a visual cue for people that Im really busy. I wont even go into how much less enjoyable listening to music would be without said devices, but forcing me to do so would definitely make me anything BUT a happy camper. especially as its relates to our college campus. In regards to the co-worker experiencing domestic violence it feels like the OP needs to do some self analysis on what theyre trying to accomplish. xrJUKr8VIEXR4ytcf0"%,K@;CP2--w_3z_GhG*m47gS~[}[G9~W-6A;,)rVP&}4U{C\_u4mW? I dont think that at all. Thats really bad policy for an IT department. Headphones Not Working? 22 Ways to Fix Them - Lifewire The OPs employees may or may not be the same, but it might be worth considering. Instead they jump in with a bunch of assumptions that very likely arent true: that the employees arent helpful, that the headphones are a FU, that a lack of immediate compliance is in complete disregard. But we dont have enough information to make any judgment at all is what Im saying. I should also note that said AirPods were a Christmas gift to me, from my executives. In general, we should trust the people we hire to be mature, respectful, professional adults who exercise good judgment. Agreed. Im not saying I agree with this, but I think they see taking out earbuds as a lot easier and less showy. No wonder the employee was rankled enough to go HR over such a petty move. That is why it is not arbitrary. I realize there is a big customer service (even when the customers are internal) aspect to IT. And if the outcome wasnt better, then that indicates there is a lack of trust in the professional relationship and that is the bigger issue than whether one wears headphones or earbuds. I work in an office with a super-strict no headphones, earbuds, nothing of any kind rule, and I just want to say that it SUCKS. day. Even though their job is fixing stuff for people, it seems like a terrible approach to have them always switching to latest and loudest and never having a time where they can focus on figuring out fixes! Samesies I did PT for pelvic floor issues. We wore headsets to assist people (try being on the phone all day AND using your computer without one!). You dont know whats up. Managers should be held to the same expectations as the rest of the team. We dont know exactly what words were exchanged, we got a very high-level summary of the gist of what happened from one persons point of view. I appreciate your comment so much! Make sure whatever you are listening to stays with you. Thats why IT departments usually have tickets. In my experience, when Ive notified my manager I have PT, no further questions are asked. Earbuds are worse for ear health, so if the headphones are not noise-cancelling headphones that prevent a person from having normal workplace communication, it doesnt seem like a hill to die on. Why? employers usually. Can you ask the marketing guys to tone down the GOT off-topic chatter or let me wear them for the couple of hours a day when they tend to go full-throttle? Or even Can we find a way to signal approachability that still allows me to block out background noise?. On occasions I have worn earbuds, or hooked earbuds that are less noticeable and people have walked in and started talking before I have taken them out, when this happens I have to ask them to repeat themselves. Therefore, it's only fair that headphones are banned for everyone else too. i would leave, thats ridiculous. Follow our Workplace Headphone Policy Checklist and print a copy of your own with our free download. Just something I need to take care of seems exactly right to me. OP should realize that not everything is a one size fits all situation. The train engineer tried to slow down and blew his whistle, but because the mans music was piped through earbuds or headphones, he never heard the train that was swiftly bearing down on him from behind. ADA issue? Ive also had them then need to devote time to intense data entry and the noise of the phones someone else is picking up and the chatter in the office is very distracting, we dont have an office to move them to, so to make their lives easier, they use headphones for that kind of product. Of course, the people who wear them nowadays are usually in noisy environments and just trying to get some work done, and arent aware of these old associations, and often respond with a combination of bafflement and resentment that anyone would object to OTE phones. I really, really dont. In my opinion, this manager should have a frank discussion about why the employees are wearing headphones, then allow them to wear headphones with the understanding that they will be responsive. If the boss gets on my case five minutes later for still not wearing red pants in open defiance of the rule, Id probably be inclined to go to HR too. What are we missing? A manager cant suddenly conjure up a different office design and theres nothing to suggest that the LW wanted an open office in the first place. 1- Mobile phones not allowed in workplace notice To: Staff Subject: Use of mobile phones in the workplace It has been observed that several employees are spending too much office time on mobile phones. IT also tends to attract folks with the ADHD and other issues which tend to have the "reduced distraction" family of accommodations. If theres a problem, we should definitely solve the problem, but even then, we should articulate the problem and work together to find solutions, rather than just mandating solutions (or non-solutions, as seems to be the case here). In many situations, companies have been found liable for employees who were making business-related phone calls or text messages while behind the wheel. These things take time and a lot of courage, usually multiple attempts. Retaliation is your word. Came here to say this; earbuds are far, far worse than headphones, because they still cant hear, but people cant see that they cant hear. I am EMPHATICALLY opposed to open office spaces. No, its like if you told them not to use a stapler, and then *didnt provide clips*. tl;dr: It seems like it should be a one-to-one replacement but its actually not. Oh yes. That doesnt work as well with earbuds hidden by my hair). Save your headphones for when you need to find deep focus. I would assume that most people who wear headphones/earbuds use them for that purpose. Feel free to borrow one of my injuries & claim it as your own. Sometimes people need to remember they are at Work. Earbuds can also raise ear wax accumulation, cause ear infections, gather dirt and bacteria, give birth to germs and make your eardrums burst even if theyd feel completely comfortable. If they banned headphones at my boyfriends IT office, people would definitely push back hard. The solution is to learn to manage your feelings of being unnerved. PDF Employee Cell Phone Policy - Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Resist the urge to police anything regarding mandated leave and if you have an issue, thinking someone is abusing the law, you need to consult an employment law attorney, dont do this one on your own, thats an ugly landmine that will blow up in the tune of big fines and penalties for your company. That doesnt work for everyone. Lost password? StackPath - EHS Today You may be working your butt off, but maybe you arent prioritizing in the way they want, or maybe working your butt off isnt getting the results they want, and they are trying to understand. When people wear earphones, nobody even realizes it, so (some) coworkers tend to call out someones name Jennifer? then progressively louder and louder until its at a screaming level JENNIFER? Working remotely, Jordan spends half of the year exploring different corners of the world. Did not know it was a generational thing makes sense; thanks! Honestly this is the first comment of hers that Ive seen that could even remotely be considered rude. Im guessing this employee has some medical issue with earbuds. Which, they probably are, in the sense youre using the to be focused. Create your account Regarding safety issues: Obviously, headphones and heavy machinery don't go well together, but over-the-ears hearing protection exists. I dont have any better advice to offer than Alison has already given, but I just wanted to let you know you arent alone. support. Request a Business account here. But when I do, Im as transparent as I can be about the why so the team member can learn, because part of exercising good judgment is learning to know when you need to ask for additional information. Whats the goal? Its easy to see how they are a nessacary tool for IT to do their job. I actually understand why earbuds can be better than headphones. And before we launch into whether or not the employee needs headphones as an ADA accommodation, Im not going to assume they do or dont (theres no detail that provides that information) What I will assume is that there is potential an issue of trust and communication between the manager and their employee. Instead, we promise a fun weekly roundup of our latest blog posts and great finds from across the web. We recently covered Shanling's M0 Pro, and the M3 Ultra DAPs but the recent Shanling pocket-friendly DAP line doesn't stop there. A written electronic device policy for employees protects you, the worker, as well as your employer and eliminates any confusion about what is acceptable in the work place. And anyone who presses for specifics after the phrases Alison suggested is either completely clueless of social norms, or totally lacking in boundaries. theyre also worse for your hearing, in the long run. And I work in retail, where its very much what managers say goes and how you look to customers is more important than whats practical, so Im used to managers sometimes enforcing rules simply because it looks good and I can absolutely imagine a manager feeling that headphones just LOOK unproductive, but the commenters and Alison are right that you should overcome this impulse and let the headphones stay. IF there seems to be some discrimination or some unfair treatment, then bring in HR, but until that conversation has been had, she has no idea what is up. It wasnt customer facing, I didnt have a team to communicate with, and didnt have to be on the phone. Huh, count me as another one who would think that the point of a ticket system is that it routes through the system so you DONT have to go down to IT and chat with the IT guy. Give me a break. Located in Huntsville/Madison, AL? Earphones work better because it also signals to other people that I cant hear them initially. 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. If they came up and said oh hey, I meant for that rule to take effect this minute, please dont use your headphones. I would use one of those lines you suggested. If anything, I slightly prefer people to wear headphones, because Im less likely to start talking to them without realizing they cant hear me and because I dont worry about them ripping out part of their ear by going too fast. I think this manager is being needlessly draconian. What you seemed to be saying is that you find it hard to believe that anyone would need to wear headphones because you yourself work as an admin, and noise isnt a new phenomenon. Well I relate to you. This is the workplace/HR equivalent of a frivolous lawsuit. Telling employees not to wear headphones I have two IT employees who like to wear headphones, not earbuds, at their desks during business hours. Thats extremely rare. You cant say that headphones cause more communication issues than earbuds, because they actually cause fewer. But the rule involved the employee needing to have something they did not have on them at the time; earbuds. Working with a PT, nope.) I have a malformed ear canal. *fr! An employee who is asked not to wear head phones and then in defiance promptly does has issues other than headphones. Pick and choose when you wear headphones. It is entirely possible to be productive in an office with noise around you . Ear Bud Policy. Because in my actual post I am not, in any way, arguing in favor of managers making arbitrary rules, and Im genuinely not sure what point youre trying to make here. In those environments, nobody is permitted to wear a ring as a perk because the reason for not wearing them is to avoid a type of incident that I shall refrain from describing. my company decided to close for 2 weeks last year and charged me a chunk of this years PTO for it, what admin assistants really want from their coworkers, should my spouse have to be background checked for my job, one-way video interviews, and more, my boss keeps asking me to do things that aggravate our community partners, update: my employee wastes a huge amount of everyones time with helpful suggestions and questioning, 8 horror stories for Administrative Professionals Day, HR jokes about firing people, I want to stop giving reasons for my time-off requests, and more. They create a sense of isolation from everyone else in your life, and can make you feel like they are the only one who understands you. no headphones found in: No Headphones Or Earbuds Allowed Sign NHE-50494, Portrait No Headphones Or Earbuds Allowed Sign NHEP-50494, No Headphones Or.. . Nearing 1000 published articles, she's spent the past decade using her interdisciplinary education to research and write content for a wide variety of industries. ), so they sometimes dont come to me with questions I do actually have time to answer. You might think no one will notice one earbud in, but since you shouldnt be listening to anything during a meeting anyway, its best not to wear them at all. If you are wearing earbuds, ensure they are visible. Boeing bans headphones, forces employees to stand still - GeekWire And to the OP as an HR professional, I agree with Allison. Safety and Use of Personal Headsets in the Workplace Oddly enough, I prefer earbuds (only certain types, though) comfortable and headphones uncomfortable. Also, low-end noise-cancelling headphones are easier to find than low-end noise-cancelling earbuds, for those on tight budgets. Yeah, but my boss aint my wife, and theres a lot of things you do to keep a spouse happy that you dont do for your boss. He rule her rules. Im sure you dont intend to come across as patronizing, but you are nonetheless. Man all this talk of headphones makes me wish Id brought mine, but Im more or less on the verge of phasing out earbuds cause of a skin condition in my ears ): That aside, Im not sure why OP didnt outright rule both outside of phone calls (unless OP prefers they use speaker or the handheld). *I know I used the word boom a lot, I just cant think of any other word. They take my headphones away and Im going to find a more reasonable employer. i?Q;GF+c/Y%xl>h! ;vl\I#;^Z2]o$5&DqW;;;{7rB#:}1[Fx=^[v[iIlBLwg~lv.'r~};Ai^){U|{;n;d?. Looking back, the random status update requests were the first sign that something was off, but I was new to the work world and assumed it was normal process, and so never asked him why he was doing it until one day he had me in his office and was threatening me with termination.