I love my new Zune and I know others love their iPods, but should we be using them at work? Is there a way to use them effectively at work? I've had the "music debate" with numerous people about using personal music in the workplace.

Regardless of whether it is AC/DC or DotNetRocks, my opinion is, music/podcasts shouldn't be used in the work place because:

• I want my team to work with each other, and I dont mind that they hear other conversations going on. Hopefully if they hear about a problem they can fix quickly, they'll help each other out. 
  Let me give you an example... say Andrew (who is busy working on another project) overhears Marlon say "Cool I found this great code generator, but I can't get past this error". I want Andrew to be able to quickly offer up advice (assuming he knows the answer already) to fix Marlon's problem before an issue develops. In this case he would say "Hey we dont use that code generator, you need to use SSW's standard code generator" 
  
• It's been suggested that multi-tasking lowers your ability to efficiently carry out a task (e.g. doing your task at hand along with listening to tunes) - by as much as 20%
  
• It can be anti-social - some people can shelter themselves
  
• If you are really concentrating on coding and listening to a podcast you are going to be distracted or not even hear the podcast and have to listen to it again anyway
  
• It regularly leads to "oh, I love this song/podcast, you should hear it" which subsequently turns into a bigger distraction for multiple people

Others have said I am wrong with reasons like:

• "It helps me give you 100% - since the office is noisy I can concentrate and I need to block out a noisy environment".... 
  
  This works by creating an additional noise source?
  
• "It helps me relax"
  
  Yes I love hearing a good song e.g when I hear Robbie Williams "Better man" it gets me pumped a bit and I guess it has a positive effect on a my state of mind. I am unconvinced it helps me program better.

There is a use for it being "background" music in some scenarios.... like when you are doing time consuming mindless stuff like fixing data, building VPCs/VMWares or waiting for long builds.

I've also been into a few offices that use ambient music to subdue their employees. Again, I'm not convinced of this as a method mostly due to the fact that your not likely to be able to attend to everyone's tastes, and you're even more likely to intensify the "oh, I love this song" factor.

Do you agree with these 2 rules?

1. Use your Zune/iPod when you have downtime.
2. Dont play your Zune/iPod and become a better team member

Adam
www.ssw.com.au