Hello folks. Thanks for your encouraging comments on my first post. In Millennial fashion, I googled ‘how people can follow my blog on Word Press’. It’s simple. Once I publish two posts, the Follow Blog Widget should appear on the bottom right corner of the screen, allowing you to follow me. Hope it works – we shall see.
Today at work, I thought about a difference in the office noise level, compared to a decade ago. I’m not talking about the heater fans, office equipment or white noise. I’m talking about the noise directly related to the people at work.
Now instead of hearing the office noises I have heard much of my career, I see the headphones and earbuds. Gone are the radios and CD players. Remember when we could play CDs in our desktops? No more team votes about which radio station to play in common areas. No spontaneous toe tapping when the greatest hit comes on, no group camaraderie when everyone knows the words to the song.
People are listening to podcasts, paid song download sites, books and other selections through laptops and mobile phones. There are still some dinosaurs like me who have an actual radio and a CD player, but the technology offered online is superior in selection and privacy.
Work is getting done, people are entertained and this is really a non-issue. Except that I can’t help but miss the old-timey noise in the office. I miss the chit chat between coworkers in cubes asking about processes and procedures. I miss the quiet laughter and exclamations as the day unfolds and things happen. I am missing the community and interaction of colleagues beyond the flat screen of the computer.
We still communicate often through computer messaging or email and we get the work done; often more efficiently than we used to. Though I am a big user of the smiley emoji, I long to see your smiling face as I tell you, “Good job”. I kind of want you to see my silly, googly eyes when I confess, “I goofed.” Those are the things that help me gauge relationships and how things are going. A careful observer could learn so much about the business and different personalities just by listening to the daily office noise.
If we want to talk to someone wearing earbuds, we have to get their attention first. This can be awkward because we don’t want to startle anyone. Do you tap them on the shoulder? Tap the desk? Invasive. Do we position ourselves in their line of vision and wait until they notice? Really hard for an extrovert to wait. Best Practice – send a message telling them you’re coming over to chat in person; rather. asking if they have a moment for an in-person visit. This works, it gets the job done. But it can leave you feeling like you’re invading someone’s privacy or that someone else is invading your privacy. Everyone knows that if you want to be left alone, you put in your earbuds.
I keep the earbuds out of my ears because I really like to hear the office noise and I like to be easily accessible. ENFJ. And what I’m hearing tells me about relationships and how things are going. Now I just have to listen more often with my eyes and plan ahead for those ‘impromptu’ face to face meetings.
