Music in the shop—getting the right balance

If you are fortunate enough to have a radio playing while you work, enjoy it if you can. Shop radios are not always on, but when they are, they add a whole new vibe to the workplace. If what’s playing gets you and others going to finish the job, then you have found the perfect mesh for your workers.

Music has been a big part of my life since I was young. I can usually tell what song is playing by the first riff or beat, and I can remember the words to most songs. When I was old enough to play my own music in my own car, it was one of the coolest things. I had a ton of CDs to choose from, and I was on the forefront of the Napster and MP3 takeover when I was in college.

Anyway, music can guide your mood. Playing music in a shop is sacred and should be handled accordingly. Having a decent radio is a good start. We’ve had some pretty terrible setups in the past. Reception literally depended on the weather and whether or not it would tune in with welding wire and rods sticking off the antenna. Resorting to playing CDs, we played some until they were too scratched to keep them.

I remember when I first got out of college and the guys in the shop would play a CD. Everyone in the shop would work and kinda dance along. This was pretty funny stuff to a person without much shop experience. Occasionally the lyrics were inappropriate, but the guys knew to turn the music off or down low if a customer or salesman came around.

Picking a radio station is fine if you have some decent ones in your area. I’m not a fan of a lot of new music and most radio stations play the same songs at the same time, like clockwork. We listen to country often, and there was this song that came on with lyrics constantly saying, “Give me just five more minutes.” This drove my co-worker Doug Teets crazy! We would all throw jabs at him and constantly tell him that his song was on or that we needed his help in five more minutes. The little things done in a shop are pretty humorous.

I guess some of the guys were getting tired of the same old tunes and decided that they were going to bring in a large Bluetooth boom box. They ran it by me, and I said I didn’t mind. One guy asked me about using the Wi-Fi, and another said he had unlimited data, so he would control the music. Either way, they got the music going and there was definitely a different feel in the shop.

They were using Pandora stations or Spotify to control the boom box. It was OK, at first, but then it got very annoying. The music was borderline painful with constant sing-while-you-whine lyrics and screaming. Then something terrible happened. Nickelback came on, and it hurt my brain. Our shop lead, Nick Trueheart, told them to turn it down, which is pretty rare. We needed a change.

Heavy metal music (Nickelback definitely is not heavy metal) is heard frequently in a lot of shops, but you have to learn to switch it up. You can’t go wrong with Metallica, but Fall Out Boy should never be played, because it will scar you and you will remember it for centuries. A lot of the guys in the shop were getting tired of it. Perhaps we should let different guys control the tunes on different days.

Maybe I’m old-school, but classic or southern rock should be mandatory while working on anything. That is my opinion. So, one day I went up to Marty Perry—an old-school, Mötley Crüe, Lynyrd Skynyrd-listening kinda guy—out in the shop and I asked him to please control the boom box. I couldn’t take it anymore. He smiled and gave me a quick, “Hell, yeah, man.” Southern radio was in effect, and it felt like my productivity got some new batteries.

I think several people weren’t digging the newer loud tunes, but it could’ve been worse. I’ve been in several larger facilities where radios are forbidden. So, if you work in a small shop and have the radio playing, remember to find the music you enjoy that makes you productive. It is sacred and should be handled with care.

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