November 6, 2007
USA Track and Field caused a stir last weekend by banning competitors in the famous New York marathon from listening to iPods while they run.
A spokeswoman for the fully starred-and-striped body said the ruling was "a safety issue". Apparently runners wearing iPods are often unable to hear announcements and other competitiors, causing dangerous multi-runner pile ups and the like.
While unconvinced about the merits of such a ban, Guru does wonder whether it could successfully be brought into the office environment, where headphones have long got his proverbial goat.
On his infrequent visits to offices, Guru finds that if he is not stuck in a lift with a long-haired youth listening to something he understands is unappealingly called thrash metal, then he is trying to get an important message across to a dumpy middle-aged woman humming along to Classic FM oblivious to the working world around her.
Guru would like to ban headphones of all sorts at work and encourage workers to interact with each other and that strange thing they seem to avoid at all costs between 9am and 5pm - work.
Comments (1)
Apparantly listening to classical music quietly while you work increases productivity, it's called the Mozart Effect, so that middle aged woman may not be so dumpy after all and heading for promotion!
Posted by Lisa | November 7, 2007 12:46 PM
Posted on November 7, 2007 12:46