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Calming

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Listening to music at work is a godsend for me! If not for music, temperatures would run entirely too high. Allow me to tell you why.

In the past, we had sharing, giving, highly trained, and even aspiring work environments within the company. From the youngest to the oldest, we had people who could handle the job, share newly learned work duties, and get all jobs within the office done. In the past, if the office was, say, 100 workers, only about three would be considered, lazy-don't give him/her anything extra. Those three come in, do what's necessary to collect a paycheck, and go home. They also did no wrong either. Oh no, wrong was always handled by management. You didn't have to share. You didn't have to shine or aspire, but you better not be wrong.

Today, wrong is not only the norm....it's rewarded. So much so, that I had to unlearn how to share, give, and aspire. It's taken some doing. I find myself backsliding at times. Typing up notes from a meeting....Ooh why would I want to do that. Sharing new information about a new procedure.....Ooh how dare me!

Stevie Wonder, Frankie Beverly & Maze, Anita Baker, to name a few, help to ease the stress of unlearning what was so good about working here. The Jackson 5 put a smile back into my heart during my 9-5 saddening world. James Taylor's "Everyday" is such a welcome comfort in my displaced work environment. Music is calming for me. It's a welcome distraction.

One more example of why, may I? One co-worker was discombobulated about another being "off" one day, saying out loud (just about everything these wrong/unsharing/ill-trained/no n-aspiring co-workers do is LOUD) "I didn't know Carol was off today. She left me a note telling me she was going to be off today but I didn't know she'd be off." Take the quoted dialogue, add some profanity, throw in a manager or two with their renditions of why Carol is absent today; more co-worker's nonsensical add-ins to the quote, clock it about seven minutes, all the while no "real work" is being done......you've got my typical day at the office. The one being quoted has brought in bagels for everyone today and a manager is paying her after purchasing something from her daughter's school fund-raiser (the rewards thing I mentioned earlier).

Music, YES! I've been with this company for 30 years. Since 2000, it's been this way. Music is my solace. My private life is my refuge. This is my first article for Helium. Wish me luck!

Learn more about this author, Laura Savvy.
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