Are headphones—ones that employees use to listen to music—in the office hindering productivity? One theory holds that the headphones reduce distractions and improve concentration. Another holds that headphones inhibit collaboration.
Reports the Boston Globe, “As companies do away with offices and lower cubicle walls to create a more collaborative—and and noisy—environment, more employees are popping in earbuds or clamping on noise-canceling headsets.”
On the pro-headset side, the Globe quotes Brian Kelly, vice president at the Tewksbury software firm TimeTrade Systems, as saying, “Would you interrupt a guy who’s pushing a large piece of wood through a saw? Headphones are the engineer’s way of saying, 'I’m in the middle of sawing something here'” The first day on the job, his employees receive a laptop, monitor, and noise-cancelling headphones.
Taking the opposing side is Elaine Varelas, managing partner at the Boston career management firm Keystone Partners, who said headphones can discourage employees from connecting with co-workers. “It’s counterproductive,’’ the Globe quotes her as saying. “It’s been proven that those informal relationships and informal interactions make for stronger teams. And stronger teams make for higher productivity and higher morale.”
Dimitry Herman, a director of business development at the software company FreeCause seems to side with Varelas. The Globe quotes him as saying, “Before you know it, everybody’s tuned in to their own world and not interacting in the way that was originally intended by the open floor plan.”
Research on the subject appears to yield mixed results. Research from Loughborough University has found that tasks take a third longer to complete when staff are interrupted by email—or, presumably, by a person. But the Globe cites another British study from 2010 found that listening to music impaired people’s ability to recall information. Yet the Globe cites yet another study by Ravi Mehta, assistant professor of business administration at the University of Illinois, and colleagues that found moderate levels of background noise helps people think more creatively. “Silence may not be good for creativity,” he said. “When people are relaxed a little bit, they think at a more abstract level.”
My take is it depends on the job. Further, an outright ban on headphones would tend to indicate that management lacks adequate tools to objectively measure employee performance. An lets be realistic—most “open office” plans have been instituted to cut real estate costs—not foster collaboration.
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