By BLR Founder and CEO Bob Brady

The iPod has changed my life.

Well, maybe that’s overstating it, but it is certainly one of the best toys of recent years. For example, regular exercise is a part of my life, but boredom has always been a factor when facing the treadmill, stationary bicycle, or StairMaster® at the gym.

Entrée iPod, and voilà! These instruments of tedium become bearable. It’s great for listening to books, a daily Wall Street Journal download, the New Yorker, and a fair amount of music, too.

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My “reading” has expanded by many hours per week, now that it accompanies my commute (played safely through the car radio), my visits to the gym, and even doing things like raking leaves. (I reached the limits when installing a bike rack for the roof of my car. It was impossible to “read” and pay attention to the (impossible) directions required to fit together the screws, hinges, clamps, and strange plastic pieces. I had to work on the bike rack solo.

That was a lesson. If what you are doing is too complicated, the iPod reduces performance.

Not at Work

One place that I don’t use my iPod is at work. The office is for work, and anything that reduces concentration is unwelcome. Productivity suffers if music is on and I try to do work. Spoken word from books, newspapers, or magazines would be totally out of the question.

Before the age of earphones, the Sony® Walkman®, and iPods, BLR had a rule against radios and stereos in the workplace. Much of the reason was objections from co-workers—teams could never agree on a musical choice, and there was a lot of discord—but we clearly wanted people to concentrate on work while they were on the job—selfish and tyrannical folks that we are. (“If we’re paying you, shouldn’t you be working?”)

With the advent of portable, personal systems, that rule went the way of the electric typewriter, but I wish it hadn’t. Not a month goes by without someone telling me about listening to talk radio while working. I cringe because there’s no way that people can concentrate on their jobs when paying attention to a radio talk show. Maybe music, but not talk.

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Similarly, whenever I hear a radio station urging listeners at work to call in, I wonder: Do employees really think that their productivity, error rate, and performance are not affected if they are paying that much attention to something else? Or do they just not care?

Music has less impact than talk, though I’m not as productive with music on, unless the activity is pretty routine. (Leaf raking appears to be just about as efficient. The bike rack was past my limit.) Nevertheless, I’ll concede that some people may not be less productive when listening to music. Computer programmers, as a class, seem to believe, almost as a matter of “religion,” that music is required for productivity. I’ve worked with any number of them who are “devout” listeners and productive—so I’ll defer, reluctantly.

Ok, I’m the boss, and the owner of the company, so there is more in it for me. But is it really that extreme to expect people to pay attention when we’re paying them for their time? My e-pinion is that “serious” workers don’t have talk and music on. To be sure, some jobs are so mindless that productivity isn’t affected. Or are there such jobs?

I’m interested in hearing your opinion. What are the policies in your organization? Do you think listening affects productivity? E-mail me at rbrady@blr.com or use the Share Your Comments button below.