I would appreciate any ideas that you have.

[Dem4truth]

Where I work we had always listened to music on the shop radio and we avoided politics cause we never agreed.

I now have a new boss who plays pigboy for 3 hours and insannity till I leave at 4PM. I asked if it was ok to bring in a walkman and he said NO. He said we have to be able to hear any pages or emergency warnings. It is just three of us in the department so I am the outcast.

Any Ideas around this situation would be appreciated.

I have to go to bed now but this has really been bothering me. I don't post much here but I see you always have good advise.

Thank you all in advance for your responses.

[Norrin Radd]

1. Change the channel. I doubt that is valid grounds for firing--

you could have a wrongful termination suit.

Or get one of those mp3 players that are smaller than a pack of gum, and hide it in your shirt with an earbud on a wire snaked up the back of your neck (kids do this in school). Or a wireless bluetooth earpiece.

Or get a tiny Sinclair radio:

http://www.sinclair-research.co.uk/z1.php

[Journeyman]

2. Does the public ever come into your work area? . . .

If so, you could appeal to the owners that the radio selection is having a negative effect on your customers. Tell management you've seen many clients look disgusted and that they've left in a hurry or, better yet, haven't returned as often as they did before reichwing radio started playing in the shop. Not many owners are going to consent to a radio playing that drives away business. Of course, you may lose the radio entirely, but the silence of a monastery is preferable to the blatherings of those idiots.

Good luck. Hope you can at least get the radio tuned to muzak if nothing better.

As a personal aside, I've never understood why anyone wants to impose their tastes on another in a closed situation like a workplace. The last shop I supervised had a radio/CD player I bought, but I never insisted everyone listen to just my music. We didn't play the radio -- most of us found it obnoxious -- but we played CDs all day long and everyone was encouraged to bring their own selections. Rarely did anyone complain about another's choice, but we had a rule that if anyone did we'd turn it off and not play it again. There's just too much good music available that everyone can tolerate, if not enjoy, for any one person to impose a detested piece on the rest of us. And I've gotta say, most everyone had their horizons broadened, for we all came out of it liking music we hadn't heard before.

And as I write this, I remember another shop I was in where the vice president played a couple of shock jocks each morning. The shop was loud so to hear it over the machinery it had to be played at top volume. One day, the president had a client in to check a job and the shock jocks had a fake orgasm contest going on (this was at the time of When Harry Met Sally). The client was mortified, the president incensed, and all radios were banned that afternoon. The president was a reasonable guy, however, and finally relented to the idea of individual speakers being set up at each work station. In this manner, if someone didn't want to listen to the radio, or if a client happened to be about, each station had the option to turn off the sound. Maybe you can get something like that in place.

Again, good luck. Sorry to hear you work for such an inconsiderate boor.

[Swamp Rat]

3. Take a maul to work and SMASH the radio into a million pieces.

:D Just kidding. :D

Show your boss some scientific journals with studies that demonstrate how classical music (or jazz, or whatever style you want), such as Mozart sonatas or Renaissance lute music, helps employees work more efficiently, etc.

[man4allcats]

4. Tell him to stick that pig up his ass.

Your attorney has advised you that the shop radio blasting pigboy and insanity is at least as distracting as a Walkman. If he insists on playing it, fine. He cannot; however, insist that you listen to pigboy and associated insanity since something you might actually want to listen to would be no more distracting than the garbage he is promulgating upon you. He must therefore either turn the goddamn thing off, allow you to change the station, bring in your Walkman if you want or face legal challenges if someone gets hurt while he's blasting neocon bullshit over the shop radio. Unfortunately, I must add that as an American employer he can probably fire you for any reason or no reason at all at his discretion without consequences, so if you really need this fucked up j-o-b, you might want to think about just how hard it is to put up with this fool's listening choices.

[Systematic Chaos]

5. I'd just point out that there are other points of view.

Tell your boss -- while mustering a straight face -- that you respect his ideas and opinions, but when you are faced with 7 hours a day of media opinion that you find yourself in disagreement with, it affects your ability to concentrate and do the best possible job. At least ask if, a couple times a week, you can have either no radio or a neutral music station. If he's not amenable to that then start looking for other work (I know, much easier said than done).

[griffi94]

6. here's an idea

if your boss is making you listen to to pigboy and ape man.
laugh out loud a lot.....i mean really whoop it up. everytime they repeat the same tired old bs
that ought to get you off the hook. of course it's probly going to get you on your bosses shit list as well

[Dem4truth]

7. Thank you all for the ideas but...

I am in need of this job right now and cannot afford to piss off the boss. I will kick this tonight with hopes someone else has other good ideas. Thanks again.