To the person (or persons) who instigated the new rule that employees in an "employees only" area at a fucking bookstore can only wear ONE headphone: you are a piece of shit. You've taken away one of the last shreds of sanity that we wage slaves have been desperately clinging to since everyone and their grandma switched to e-books. Working retail in a Costco-like environment is soul-sucking and draining, even if the product being peddled is respectable and good. I won't even delve into the fact that we are understaffed and overworked; that's another point entirely. What I am trying to make clear is that being able to listen to some low-level music (while not on the retail floor kissing customer ass) is a godsend, and you've ruined it by allowing us to listen to our portable music devices with only ONE ear. Where is the joy in that? And how is it less distracting? If anything, it's actually more disruptive since our brains are actively trying to make sense of the sound duality created by music in one ear and a cavalcade of voices in the other. The normal TWO EAR use of headphones lets us actually concentrate on our work (again, off the retail floor where there are no customers in sight) while still allowing us to hear work-related pages. It's worked that way for many years and has, until now, been one of the saving graces of a job gone mad. Thank you, Big Brother, for making our independent bookstore feel more and more like a corporate nightmare.