Bucking the Cultural Norm

I'm the same way. It really helps to keep you focused on what you are doing because you can't hear distractions. I just don't use classical music, I'm more of an electronic type of person because there are no words and it keeps me going.

At my bank, analysts are allowed to listen to music with earphones/headphones, but most wait until the evening around dinner time and when the senior banks start to leave the office. Myself, personally, I am in the same boat as the OP (I have over 100 hours worth of classical music on iPod) but I don't bust out the headphones until the evening. During the daytime, I just do my best to tune out all the background noise.

I have actually been warned about listening to headphones during the day. In my performance review they scratched off a couple of dollars because of a "lack of focus," which basically translated into wearing headphones during the day. My general rule is that when the MD's AND VP's leave, I can plug them in and no one cares or complains. My headphone are actually quite nice but I've had them for 5 years now. If anyone can recommend a nice pair of noise-cancelling headphones please do so. (Sorry to go off on a tangent.)

I view headphones as a "cranking, do not disturb" symbol when worn during the day.

this industry is so fucking retarded.

very common after dinner.

Douglas_MacArthur

this industry is so fucking retarded.

That's an odd comment - it's not as though I-Banking is the only job in which it would be frowned upon to wear headphones during normal working hours.

Personally, it was fine in my office to wear headphones during the day but I would just take cues from FT analysts in your office - every firm is different

I pop em in if I'm cranking on a model or something. Also wear them at night when the office empties out.

If I'm working on something but also want to be coherent of my Analyst's requests and visits, I just keep one ear free. Weird that anyone would care though, as it'd seem beneficial to me if an analyst was listening to an earnings call or something.

Probably group specific thing. i would see what the FTs are doing. At my group it was perfectly acceptable/I did it during the day as a summer. It was just a sign of cranking on something

just curious, which headphones do people usually use?

i wear my headphones throughout the day- no problems.

Bose in ears are awesome. highly recommend them

Bucking the cultural norm? I was thinking something much more drastic than a pair of headphones.