Hear my pain: Young lawyers at my office wear AirPods at their desk

At my law firm, the young lawyers toil away at their desks while wearing AirPods. This makes communicating with them somewhat challenging. Is this acceptable etiquette in an office environment?
J.B., Yarrawonga, VIC

Credit: Illustration by Simon Letch

Everyone seems to be wearing AirPods. You see so many people walking around with little white cigarette butts hanging out of their ears, it’s as if they were told that smoking orally is bad for you so they’ve decided to try it aurally. People wearing them on the streets, on public transport, in the home. I was talking to my wife in the kitchen last week and when she turned to open the fridge I saw a pair in her ears. Turns out she was immersed in a fascinating, Booker-longlisted audiobook and hadn’t heard a word of my equally fascinating rant about printer ink, and the difference between regular black and photo black.

So I get your frustration with your colleagues. You end up having to say everything twice: once when their AirPods are on, and once when they’ve tapped them off and given you a world-weary eye-roll and said, “What?”

Also, you’re working in a law firm, so there’d be some heavy-duty matters to discuss: assault, robbery, fraud, homicide, neighbourly fence disputes. You can’t be briefing lawyers about a breach of the Fences Amendment Act while they’re sitting there humming along to Sabrina Carpenter on Spotify’s Pop ‘n’ Fresh playlist.

Look, maybe these young lawyers work better with AirPods, or maybe they’re expanding their knowledge with law-themed songs: The Clash’s I Fought the Law and The Cruel Sea’s Better Get a Lawyer. Personally, I think AirPods should go the way of cigarettes. If people want to use them in the workplace, they should have to go outside and huddle in a back lane for an aural smoko.

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