Listening to Music in the Office

So, I like listening to music while I am working, as do my Meridian colleagues. You’ll often hear us humming along to our favourite tunes while we are working. It seems common place up and down the country and within different industries for music to be on in the workplace; from a mechanic’s garage, to a modern marketing consultancy’s office, to the operating theatre in a hospital…. but have you ever stopped to think why so many of us like listening to music while we are at work?

The Science Bit!

An article ‘How music affects your productivity’ looks into the value of listening to music while carrying out repetitive tasks. It appears to conclude that if we are carrying out recurring or immersive tasks, music can be useful, as it can actually relieve us from the monotony of carrying out certain tasks.

The Guardian explores whether the types of music we listen to is important and there appear to be mixed results. There has been some research into the level of syncopation within a piece of music but overall it would seem that the type of music we like to listen to, when we are at work, really comes down to our personal preference.

It could also be that listening to more uplifting tunes, while at work, helps to improve the mood. This may therefore mean that having the radio on in the office may be fruitful, as it will probably play tunes that are acceptable to most personal tastes. So it may be that we are all on to something here, the only problem is how are we going to agree what to listen to!

Maybe, the future, will look more like this, with individuals plugged in to their own headphones, listening to their own music, to get into their work.