"Silent" $1,000 Headphones Flying Off Shelves: Staging "Competent Rejection" by Just Wearing Them
An internal-politics headphone that scrapped its speaker functions to specialize solely in powerful noise-canceling and an "On-Call Lamp" has become standard equipment. The number of young employees paying for the silent pressure of "Don't talk to me" is surging, and the skill of nodding with a smile while physically blocking out a boss's nagging hit record highs in this term's performance reviews.