Flip through the latest issue of Gulf Weekly.
Whistle while you work? Not if your colleagues have anything to do with it. But could playing music in the office actually improve our productivity, ask Laura Marcus and Shilpa Chandran 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?
Amit M Shah, 28, finance, administration and human capital development manager of Green Packet Networks in Seef, believes that is the case. "Music is the right therapy especially after lunch to get people back into the working groove," he said. "It's one of the best ways to maintain, if not increase, productivity.
"According to research conducted in the US, it has been proven that on average, there is an increase in productivity when music is played in the workplace.
"At GreenPacket we believe in exponential productivity performance and instead of making it boring with the routine professional tools, music is a simple, yet an effective, alternative solution towards an enhanced working environment.
"At times we have two or three different kinds of music playing at the same time from different desks!
"The most common tunes at our office are Chill Out/Lounge Music for instance 'Buddha Bar'."
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 Dr 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 it's not just a problem of breaking off an email to appreciate a rousing chorus. If workplace music is played around the office, rather than through headphones, there's the whole problem of taste. "We did some research in call centres where the work isn't that demanding but is very tedious," said Dr Furnham. "We found teams fought bitterly over music and it became a weapon so had to be stopped.
"You need to be wary of the effect it can have. Music increases arousal which is why it can be a useful stimulant in the car, but many drivers switch it off or turn it down when negotiating difficult junctions as they don't want to be distracted."
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 recent survey the most irritating sound is co-workers 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.
"People get intensely annoyed by overhearing the sound of the bass spilling out from headphones of their colleagues," said Prof John Sloboda, a music psychologist at Keele University in central England. "Overhearing part of someone's music, not the whole thing, seems to be far more annoying than hearing the whole thing."
Consideration, here is key - you should always ask if the person at the next desk can hear your music, and if they mind. It isn't necessarily the noise itself that annoys, but the perceived thoughtlessness behind it.
