Singing is banned!

I was sat at work today when someone dropped into the conversation that our employers have banned singing! Yes, you heard me right…. Banned singing? What is that all about?

Now to me it sounds farcical, in fact I did laugh when I was told. A tinkling laugh that I hope sounds like singing to their oh so sensitive ears.

First let me explain. It is not as if we break into falsetto voices at every given opportunity, communicating only by song. We talk, we communicate, we work damn hard. Yes, we do sing and yes I have to admit at times it can be fairly rousing. (particularly when we launch into a Carpenters medley). But, I’d like to think that we are intelligent enough to judge the situation and act accordingly. For example, it is not as if we are stood serenading poorly patients as they manically gesture for a vomit bowl. It is simply a harmless case of “whistle while you work”. Apparently good enough for the seven dwarfs, but not us.

So, it would seem that our esteemed employers deem us to lack the necessary intellectual capacity to exercise our judgment. Individuality it would appear is frowned upon.

…..As if this wasn’t bad enough (and I haven’t even got onto the rules about physical contact) it would seem that such banality also exists outside the workplace. Tonight, four of us went out for a pizza. Fairly straightforward you’d imagine. It was, until a fifth person joined us and asked for a drink. Apparently that is against the rules. No food, no drink. OK, perhaps I can understand this rule if it was a table of people just ordering drinks, but one out of five, give me a break. Well, yes, infact they eventually did and used their discretion. But the fact is they had to raise it as an issue in the first place and made us feel such a request was unreasonable.

The question seems to be at what level are these non sensical rules created? At the coalface or by some mystical manager? Are employees so intimidated that they daren’t deviated from the rehearsed dialogue drummed into them in training sessions. Do they swap their initiative for a shiny name badge? If they fail to ask us if we would like help packing our carton of milk and 2 cans of baked beans will they spontaneously combust, I very much doubt it.

All I ask for is the simple acknowledgement that we are individuals and act accordingly. Do not just get the rulebook out and recite it word for word.