Strange but true:
We recently visited the tech-support operation of a large, New England-based software company. There were dozens of people answering questions simultaneously. We were allowed to eavesdrop on the conversations and were surprised by the narrowness of the questions. The program these people were supporting filled a CD-ROM and had fourteen distinct components, most of them rather complicated. Nearly all the talk we overheard centered on two issues: installing the program and printing one specific kind of document. Chalk it up to confusing design or insufficient documentation: either way, these poor tech-support folks were stuck answering the same two questions over and over, at least 10 calls an hour.
Twice a day, though, the phones went unanswered for 10 minutes. During this time, the support reps hurriedly tried to end their calls, placed their headsets down, closed their product-database programs, opened another program, and looked toward the front of the room. Their boss was standing up, waiting to talk until he had everyone’s attention.
“Let’s do ‘You Shook Me All Night Long,'” said the shift supervisor, and his minions nodded, turned toward their screens, and pecked a dozen or so keystrokes.
“OK…now,” said the shift supervisor. In unison, every worker hit the return key on his or her keyboard and AC/DC’s hard-rock anthem “You Shook Me All Night Long” blasted out of the speakers of every PC in the basketball-court-sized room. Some people played air guitar to the crunching riffs, some just sat and sang along, others congregated around the vending machines at either end of the room. After 10 minutes, the supervisor called “Time!” and everyone robotically returned to answering the same two questions ad nauseum.
Playing the song on so many PCs simultaneously was silly and a respite from the job’s tedium; “You Shook Me All Night Long” was one of 20-odd uptempo songs the supervisor played during breaks. We were impressed by the camaraderie during the musical interludes; we returned that afternoon to see the room shake to Prince’s “1999”. And the technical geeks among us were impressed that every employee had a sleek Cambridge Soundworks subwoofer and a pair of speakers on his or her desk.
“Yeah, it’s an extra expense,” said the shift supervisor. “Even after we got a volume break, the speaker systems cost more than $100 each. But see how people relax and unwind during those breaks? It’s definitely worth it. On the weekends, people can sign them out, too. Would we rather not have spent those thousands of dollars? Sure. But has it been worth it as one of the 100 things we do to fight burnout? Absolutely.”
Unless you’re self-employed or you’re one of the rare non-VPs these days who has an office with a door, you might be better off with headphones than speakers. We asked around the office that day (even when the supervisor wasn’t listening) and everyone except for one crab apple thought the speakers were fun, unexpected perks that made the job more animating. Said one employee, “As long as they lay off the Celine Dion, this is a great job.”
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Do you listen to music at work? We want to know.
