… to music at work?

In college when I’m doing my homework, I plug in my headphones, tune everyone out and focus on my work. But is that really something you want to do in a workplace? Tune everyone out? On the one hand, I understand if you’re having a really busy day and need to get stuff done and checked off the list, but you miss the fun discussions with coworkers, the “hey, who knows the answer to this” questions, and the initiative that every intern is supposed to have.

I have decided not to listen to music at work, despite overhearing distracting phone conversations, even though some other people choose to use headphones. I feel that by not using headphones I have connected to my coworkers better, and it has actually helped my performance. Last week, I overhead my boss telling a coworker about this crazy order this company just placed and how they wanted information in an hour. Being the intern (and Scripps student I am), I emailed my boss and offered to help. She took me up on it. It took four of us all day to pull the information they wanted and she was super grateful. Near the end of the day, she sent an email out to the whole team about how big a help I was and how she didn’t even need to ask. If I had had my headphones in, I would not even have heard that conversation to know how busy she was. It was at this point that I confirmed my decision not to listen to music at work.