Duh: Aerospace Workers Banned From Using iPods

Nicole Martinelli ()

Image courtesy Marshall Aerospace

Image courtesy Marshall Aerospace

Feel slightly bad for the folks at Marshall Aerospace out on the tarmac, using forklifts or putting planes together who got used to listening to ambient or Vegan-a-Go-Go podcasts while on the job.

Following the advice of a health and safety expert,  the 1,500 employees of the Cambridge, UK company have been banned from using iPods at work.

“There have been no particular incidents,” said an unnamed spokesman in a press release. “But on our site there are aircraft, forklift trucks and so on moving around – and we are a precision engineering firm. We feel that people should always be concentrating fully.”

He added: “We don’t get middle-aged employees wearing iPods but we do see employees in their 20s who listen to music while working.”

Comforting to know the young ‘uns won’t be distracted on the job.

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What other professions should be banned from using iPods at work?

11 comments »

About the author

nicole_martinelli

Nicole Martinelli is a San Francisco native who has lived in Milan and Florence, Italy. She's written for Wired.com, The New York Times and Newsweek. You can find her on Twitter , Facebook and Google+.

If you're doing something new/cool that's Apple related, email her about it.

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Posted in iPod, News |

  • thanx_al

    Windows employees.

  • http://bobjamieson.net Bob

    At the lab I work in iPods are allowed as long as it’s only in one ear – presumably so you can hear if anything goes wrong, or if the fume cupboard alarms are going off. It’s a smart policy.

  • Jeff

    I work in aerospace in the UK and I couldn’t work without an ipod. It’s excellent sound insulation against inane chatter in the office. However, I can see some hazards in some environments:- fire alarms, heavy machinery or even just spoken warnings (chemical spills etc.)

    Same as anywhere, you just have to be professional and pay attention to your surroundings…

  • Ken Cohen

    Duh?

    Bus drivers
    Taxi drivers
    Pilots

    Next time you’re flying Air Yemen, won’t you be comforted to know that the mechanic who serviced the plane’s broken aileron or whatever that morning had loud music blaring in his ears while he worked?

  • John

    Ken: er, why pilots, exactly?

  • db

    teachers. but it would help to drown out the whining of the other teachers, parents, admins…..

  • Duality

    I can understand the ban… It makes sense in some places. It really depends on what you’re doing. I regularly listen to music with noise-blocking (not cancelling) headphones in on my motorcycle… But I wouldn’t do it if I was heading into urban traffic. *Shrug* It’s really dependent on the situation.

    The strangest thing about all of this is that you’ve now put me onto Vegan-A-Go-Go and much to my surprise it’s actually good… O_o Am I a joke now?

    I’m ‘only’ vegetarian but extra recipes can’t hurt.

  • http://www.zoomata.com Nicole Martinelli

    Duality–

    Confession: I was just rooting around for examples and loved the name. (Then I listened to it and thought it was cool — despite being an relatively untroubled omnivore, myself.)

    The reference was in no way intended to demean vegans or aerospace workers, FWIW…

  • Duality

    Haha, thanks Nicole, no problem at all. Like I said you’ve put me onto an interesting podcast… And I’m a podcast freak so it’s going to get a lot of use! =P

    ^_^

  • http://blastmagazine.com/the-magazine/technology/ Michael Kaufmann

    I’m not allowed to wear an iPod at my mall-retail job, even if we’re before or after store hours. It’s kind of lame.

  • Dan

    There were four reasons for the ban given to the employees, none of which was “We feel that people should always be concentrating fully.”

    They were:
    - Premature hearing loss due to daily use
    - Not being able to hear warnings, aircraft, forklifts, etc
    - Noise ‘leaking’ and annoying other people
    - Other people hearing your music thus requiring Performing Rights Society licences.

    In my environment (office) I find it difficult to concentrate with the level of background noise (I’m sat next to a printer and a meeting area). Hence my productivety has dropped since the ban. At least I’m not going against health and safety recommendations though!