Is listening to music at work a good or bad thing?

With 9 in 10 workers struggling to stay focused and distracted minds costing the American economy $468 billion a year, could music be the secret to sharpening our focus?
According to various studies, songs in the 50-80 beats per minute (BPM) range can help put one’s brain in a more focused and creative zone. Some have even devised the perfect work playlist — like this one featuring Queen, Taylor Swift and Imagine Dragons. Or this, with tunes by Katy Perry, Adele and Bruno Mars.
There’s a difference of opinion on whether music at work is a good thing, however. While Gen Z say they are more productive when working around sound, boomers maintain they need quiet to work. Aside from disrupting one’s colleagues, listening to music can distract a worker from important things like phone calls or vital office conversations, even pose a safety hazard. It’s also been suggested that introverts may perform worse than extroverts with background music, especially when the tunes are highly arousing.
A lot of it depends on the industry and nature of the job, according to Annie Rosencrans, director of people and culture at the HR platform HiBob. In more buttoned-up fields like banking or law, especially in roles that require great precision, a quieter environment is usually preferred to minimize the risk of error, she noted. Meanwhile, in more creative fields like advertising and PR, playing music can foster a more dynamic, energized atmosphere.
“Ultimately, it comes down to the specific work environment, individual preferences and team dynamics,” Rosencrans said. “If even one person finds music distracting, a fair compromise is to allow those who want to listen to music to do so with headphones.” She conceded that team bonding could be more of a challenge if workers were isolated in their own little music bubbles, commenting that “balancing individual preferences with team cohesion and productivity is key.”
HiBob does not have a formal policy on employees listening to music at work, relying instead, she said, on “common courtesy and the needs of the office environment.” Employers can even use music as a tool for fostering culture and team building, she suggested — proposing that themed music days (“80s Mondays,” for example) could serve to lighten the mood and bring people together.
Most of us seem keen to play our tunes during work. Rosencrans said she finds music personally motivating for performing certain tasks. Same goes for Vito Gallo, comms manager at digital learning company Skillsoft, commenting that his preferred playlist depends on the task at hand. “If I’m writing long-form content, you cannot go wrong with orchestral pop (movie or video game scores),” he said.
Noah Greenberg, CEO at content distribution platform Stacker, added that while playing music is “definitely role-specific,” he personally “would have only been half as productive in the first 10 years of my career if I wasn’t able to plug headphones on and just work.”
For Wendy Serafin, comms consultant at PR firm Nifares Group, it depends on what the work is, but she does tend to favor putting on tunes late in the day. “Chainsmokers Radio on Pandora is my go-to,” she said.
Music can have other workplace benefits, Serafin pointed out, noting that her company features music at events, using it to open and close employee town halls, for example. Meanwhile, for customer-related events, it has curated a custom playlist that’s made available to attendees to download afterward, she noted — making music, in addition to a personal motivator, also “a branding opportunity and connection point.”