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Day’s Verse:
Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God. Therefore no one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of sin.
Romans 3:19-20
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How can I nicely ask my coworker with the radio to turn it off when he leaves his desk? He tends to be very sensitive, and I want to ask tactfully and without sounding like a total jerk.
…Or should I just suck it up and deal with having the music on all the time?
Does your coworker have it on all the time when he’s at his desk and does it bother you then? I ask because it makes a difference as to whether in his sensitive mind he can separate the two.
If not, its going to be really hard.
He has it on all the time when he’s at his desk (and when he’s not). It does bother me then, but I don’t feel like I can say anything about that since he has it at a reasonable level.
I would recomend being all passive aggressive about it and turn on your own music just a little bit louder.
You can’t be responsible for other people’s reactions to things. You can only be responsible to ask politely and explain your reasons. Then, of course, you have to be responsible for your reaction to his reaction, whatever it is. 🙂
Is it possible for either of you to wear headphones?
I actually do wear headphones, but I don’t often *want* to. Generally I’m happy with ambient noise and being forced to wear headphones all the time to avoid irritating/distracting music is kind of frustrating.
I think that it’s okay to ask nicely if he could use headphones when playing his radio. I’m not sure what kind of a defense could be mounted against such a request.
You said he has it on at a reasonable level, but I think that it is too loud if you can hear it at all.
Have you tried the humorous route with him? If you smile you can get away with murder. I did that with a coworker whose cell phone had a stupid little jingle that I had the pleasure of hearing multiple times a day. One day after it went off I suggested that maybe we could all take a vote on her next ring tone since we all got to be entertained by it. The next day I noticed that her cell phone had a very simple, conventional, telephone ring.