A leaked corporate memo has workers buzzing. No, not the Yahoo order for
telecommuters to move into the office. It's a new edict at Harley-Davidson:
No more music on the factory floors.
Like many manufacturers around the country, the motorcycle maker has
decided that headphones, boom boxes and piped-in music get in the way of plant
safety and productivity.
Harley-Davidson officers said music had proved to be a distraction from
the work at hand and a potential hazard.
The order includes the Kansas City plant.
Irv Robinson, owner of Robbie Fantastic Flexibles, a plant in Lenexa that
makes printed plastic packaging, is in full accord with the new Harley rule.
"We don't allow music," Robinson said. "It's a safety problem. And we
make our guys wear earplugs anyway. We can't add to the existing noise."
Other major manufacturing operations allow music in some form. At the
General Motors Fairfax plant in Kansas City, Kan., for example, workers can't
wear headphones, but they can play small radios at low volume -- low enough
that sounds won't override plant-wide information. Ford declined to comment on
the policies in its plants, one of which is in Claycomo.
The music issue crops up in offices and stores as well as factories. When
music is allowed in the workplace, it sometimes causes co-worker clashes
because tastes differ. So, too, do workers' abilities to tune out
distractions.
Bothering co-workers with your own musical tastes "could be considered
like smoking -- you're affecting those around you," said Connie Russell, an
area leadership coach and consultant. "You want to be respectful to others."
Music listeners point out that with headphones, music doesn't have to be
shared. But headphones are safety impediments if music drowns out the sounds
of machinery or announcements that workers need to hear.
The Harley ban prompted a flurry of online postings from workers who
argued that music helps break up the monotony of work and helped morale.
Researchers have reported that music both helps and hurts productivity.
Generally, classical or other music without lyrics gets a green light. One
study even concluded that cows give more milk when listening to classical
music.
But louder music, especially with lyrics, has been found to impair
concentration on the job. That was especially true in workplaces where
different kinds of music vied for dominance or when co-workers disagreed about
choices.
