Take a quick look around your office. Everyone is staring intently at their screens, quietly getting on with their work - or so it seems. But now look for the telltale wires snaking from peoples' ears - and the iPods and music players sitting on their desks. Some workplaces traditionally have a musical backdrop - shops and bars, for instance - but now office workers are increasingly choosing to tap their keyboards in time to a soundtrack. It certainly helps alleviate the inevitable boredom. But can you really concentrate on work while your favourite album is on loop? Dr Adrian Furnham, professor of psychology at University College London, is less than convinced. During the second world war, research showed that easy-listening tracks boosted productivity among factory workers. But, reasons Furnham, that doesn't mean it's going to help in offices. "If the task is simple, mechanical and straightforward it can be beneficial - but the more cognitively demanding, the more distracting music is," he says. And which music is most distracting? Anything vocal, loud, familiar and fast - the kind you'd want to sing along to. Which brings us to the next problem with music at work: according to a survey by BBC Radio 4's Front Row programme in 2006, the most irritating sound is coworkers trying, and failing, to sing. But don't think you can just block out the tortured wailings of your colleague at the next desk with a pair of headphones - you could end up being more annoying than even their most tuneless attempts.

But coworkers shouldn't be too intolerant of their neighbour's habit of plugging in their iPod - sometimes it's the only way to blot out what can be a considerable amount of office noise . "While open-plan offices are often 'sold' as a facilitator for colleague interaction, most workers know it's really about saving money - so people use music to give them a sense of their own space," says Furnham. It's not just space we use our headphones for - it's privacy, says Anneli Beronius Haake, who is currently researching music in offices for a PhD at the University of Sheffield, northern England. Her research shows that many people pressing play on their MP3 players are sending out a 'leave me alone!' message. "Headphones are a way of shutting out interruptions," she says. But of course there's a downside: it also means missing work-related chat. "At a firm of architects the director was worried people plugged into headphones all day would lose the opportunity for informal learning - often at work you learn a lot just from the buzz in the office. If you close yourself off from it, you can't take part. Being qualified isn't just about having the right education; it's also about communicating within groups and learning from others," says Beronius Haake.



Słowniczek

telltale wires snaking from peoples' ears - zdradliwe kabelki wijące się ludziom przy uszach

helps alleviate the inevitable boredom - przynosi ulgę w nieuchronnej nudzie

album is on loop - płyta gra w kółko

block out the tortured wailings - odciąć się od jękliwego zawodzenia

the only way to blot out - jedyny sposób by zagłuszyć

you learn a lot just from the buzz in the office - wiele się można nauczyć przysłuchując się biurowym rozmowom