A company culture that allows people to watch YouTube, listen to music on their headphones, or joke around without a supervisor telling them to get back to work is not just cool and hip. At its core, treating employees like this shows that you trust them.
I find it hard to fully agree with this statement. Listening to music? No problem. Joking around with a supervisor? No problem. Watching Youtube while at work? Problem.
Listening is an activity that people can often do while multitasking, watching videos is not. It's just not a multitasking-friendly activity. Besides, with Youtube, there is a constant pull to watch the next thing ("People who watched this video also watched...").
If your manager and his/her manager happened to walk by your desk at the same time and see you (a) not working, and instead (b) watching a Youtube video, how's that going to play out? It's likely that your manager will get an earful from his/her manager and, as the saying goes, *#&$% flows downhill.
Are you at work right now? Then I think you proved my point. :D
Seriously though, you make a good point making a distinction between things you can do while working, and things that completely stop the flow of work. I guess that my argument is that, in appropriate quantities, stopping working can actually keep your mind engaged for the entirety of the day, which can actually enable more work to get done overall.
I find it hard to fully agree with this statement. Listening to music? No problem. Joking around with a supervisor? No problem. Watching Youtube while at work? Problem.
Listening is an activity that people can often do while multitasking, watching videos is not. It's just not a multitasking-friendly activity. Besides, with Youtube, there is a constant pull to watch the next thing ("People who watched this video also watched...").
If your manager and his/her manager happened to walk by your desk at the same time and see you (a) not working, and instead (b) watching a Youtube video, how's that going to play out? It's likely that your manager will get an earful from his/her manager and, as the saying goes, *#&$% flows downhill.