Why There's No Music In My Office, And What My Gym Taught Me About It

I go to a gym in Sheffield called PCA. It's PT only, which means everyone there is having private sessions, so it's never busy, nobody's fighting over the squat rack, there's no posing, no time wasters and no judgement. It's got a brilliant mix of old and new equipment, all full of character, and the trainers are friendly and properly professional. I rate it highly.

But it has one flaw that's nearly driven me to quit a few times, and the only reason I haven't is loyalty and gratitude to my own PT. The flaw is the music.

The Trouble With Other People's Taste

When you're working out, and let's be honest it's sometimes genuinely tortuous, the last thing you need is more torture for your ears and your brain. At least one of the trainers there just plays his own music. Either it's hard 80s rock on a loop, or some obscure 80s album he clearly loves, played start to finish, then started again.

This is wrong on a few levels. First, the gym is for the people using it, not for the staff running sessions in it. If a trainer wants a particular sound in his own ears while he coaches, fair enough, but the room belongs to everyone in it, paying customers included. Second, it's a shared space with other people in it, so you can't just plough on with the same artist, the same album, the same vibe regardless of who's around. If someone hates it, as I do, that feeling doesn't lift three minutes later. It just keeps grinding on. Third, and this one seems obvious to me, working out should align with something upbeat, decent BPM, pop or disco or whatever gets the blood moving, not moody obscure album tracks that suit one person's mood and nobody else's.

Thankfully my own PT changes the playlist the moment I complain. But the fact I have to complain at all tells you something. It shouldn't be down to the loudest objector in the room to get a fix. It should never have been an issue in the first place.

Why I Don't Allow Music In My Own Workplace

Maybe I'm oversensitive about this. But it's exactly why, in every business I've run, whether it was just me and a couple of people or an office with twenty staff in it, I've never allowed music on. No streamed radio, no playlist, no Bluetooth speaker quietly building a following in the corner. If people want music, they're welcome to wear headphones.

The logic is the same as the gym. Someone always ends up choosing the soundtrack, and it's rarely a genuinely neutral choice. It's their taste, their mood, their idea of what makes a good working atmosphere. And the assumption that follows, that everyone else is happy with it, is almost never actually tested. Have you asked the team in a properly anonymous way whether they like what's playing? I'd put money on the answer being no. Nobody asks, because nobody wants to be the one who admits they hate the breakfast show banter or the same three Spotify playlists on rotation.

The Quiet Is Worth Protecting

There's something genuinely good about quiet. Not silence exactly, but the natural sound of a business actually working: the phone going,conversations between colleagues, the kettle, the door. That's a healthier atmosphere than anything a playlist can manufacture, and it doesn't ask anyone to put up with someone else's taste for eight hours a day.

It's a small thing, banning music from a workplace. It won't fix culture on its own and it isn't the most pressing decision any business owner will make this year. But it's a good example of a wider point. Just because nobody's complained doesn't mean everyone's happy. Sometimes the kindest thing you can do for a shared space is take the choice away from the loudest person in the room and give everyone back a bit of peace.