The Peril of Workplace Whistling

Now correct me if I am wrong, but the Dwarves told us to whistle while we work. Perhaps in a simpler time, a time when you went to work with your axe or shovel, when you worked hard all day and then left work behind to enjoy cottage bachelorhood with six other messy, chore-averse men with strong personality traits – whistling while you worked was a good idea.

Here are a couple of Quotations that I have found interesting:

There’s too little. “Why don’t people whistle any more?” writes international champion whistler Steve Herbst in USA Today. “It is natural, free, and a great stress-reliever. One does not even have to buy an instrument or pay for lessons. Yet, what used to be the most common of occurrences is a rarity in public . . . [T]he truth is, whistling seems an aberration today — it simply is not cool. What is more, today’s youth and their parents do not even know how since nobody ever showed them. They might know how to hail a cab or call the dog (or the hogs), but not how to make music.”

There’s too much. ” ‘If people are humming or whistling in their office, that doesn’t have any communal purpose,’ says Timothy Griffiths, a professor of cognitive neurology at Newcastle University Medical School in England. Trouble arises partly because the performer’s officemates often end up getting the tunes they hear stuck in their heads, an affliction that is an extreme case of what scientists call ‘musical imagery.’ The problem is the same parts of the brain are activated whether we listen to a song or simply think about it,” says The Wall Street Journal.

Anyway,

I’m here to tell you that in this fast paced, post industrial, every person for themselves, Office Space, slush bucket of a world we live in, whistling in the work place is frowned on.

OK, I can admit it – whistling bugs some people – a LOT. I suppose the real problem lies with me, in that, while I walk my lips are almost mechanically connected to my feet. I can’t walk if I don’t whistle. Anyway, a co-worker asked me to stop whistling.

It’s happened to me before. When I first started my career, a co-worker threatened to tell on me. I stopped whistling, of course – no one likes to be told on. It’s embarrassing to be asked to stop whistling.

It has happened again – just last week. I am trying very hard, but somehow my enjoyment of the work place is less now. I suppose I have to respect the public space.

To wrap up: Nothing against Dwarves, but I think they had this one wrong – or more precisely : The wisdom of the Dwarves is maybe not as venerable as some might like to believe.

If you go to work, as many of us are forced to do regularly, maybe just whistle on your way.