Posted By Peter Longworth
Hello Robert
I work for a large manufacturing company inthe northwest. We had a similar issue with personal stereos. We prohibited their use on the grounds that we felt they were a serious distraction for employees who were operating machinery, using tools and working in areas where FLTs were operating. We also recognised that we were completely unable to regulate the volume of sound at the ear of someone listening to a personal stereo.
We also decided that radios were not acceptable because of the likelihood of several different radio stations being played at one time. In the end we opted to play the radio through the PA system. There are performing rights issues connected to this but they are not insurmountable. We can regulate the volume to an acceptable level and although we occasionally get complaints about the content, most people consider it to be the best solution.

Posted By Sean Fraser
We banned MP3 players on the grounds that there was no overall control of noise level to individual ears and the amount of FLT traffic and overhead cranage justified the decision. However, we have had and continue to have radios in use.

Saying that, the greatest risk of noise induced hearing loss in the workplace is likely to be the level the radio is set at!

Music certainly makes the day go past better, especially if the tasks are repetitive and low skill range.

As always, there is no easy answer! Total ban may create more problems than it solves.

Posted By Kieran J Duignan
Robert

The limitation of legal perspectives is that they fit so easily in the abstract and out of context. Alongside legal perspectives, motivational perspectives inevitably also arise whenever you want human (and other) animals to adapt their behaviour.

To the extent that the culture you are working in facilitates it, you have choices about how best to consult the employees and negotiate adaptations to their behaviour that balance objectives that apparently conflict.

There's a lot of evidence that people prefer to work safely where competence leadership sets the context appropriately through a variety of forms of positive reinforcement for behaviour that includes, but is not limited to, safe actions.

As in so many areas of working life, employees who are consulted about change offer perspectives on options that others don't easily recognise.

Posted By Merv Newman
OK. good answers above, as usual. I do not like personal radios or telephones in the work place. They are too distracting.

I do approve of groups of workers having their own radio/CD player. It helps them to get with the rhythm.

Last year I came across a team who were marrying engines with front transmissions. Tattoos, Mohican's, bare arms, the lot. They were playing "Ram Dam" - classical music with muscle - Beethoven's fifth, Mussorgsky's "Night on a bare mountain", "Hall of the mountain kings". Wagner "Valkyries", "Gotterdammerung", ...

All the PPE, not a foot out of place and no accidents for five years. I bought the CD.

Merv