Just picture for a minute you’re a salesperson. Now imagine that you have a call scheduled today with a very valuable client. Numerous reps from their offices have gathered to discuss whether to hire your company for the job. All of the various voices get a little jumbled and difficult to understand. But you’re hearing most of it.
And it sounds distorted and even less clear when you continue cranking up the volume. So you simply do your best, reading between the lines. You’re really good at that.
As you listen, the voices sound particularly muffled for around a minute. This is the point where the potential client asks “so precisely how will your firm help us solve this?””
You freeze. You didn’t catch the last few minutes and aren’t sure what issue they’re attempting to resolve. This is your contract and your boss is counting on you. What can you do?
Should you admit you didn’t hear them and ask them to reprise what they said? They might think you weren’t paying attention. Do you start using a lot of sales jargon? No, they’ll see right through that.
Every single day, individuals everywhere are dealing with situations like this while working. Sometimes, they try to pretend they’re fine and wing it.
So in general, how is your work being affected by your hearing loss? The following will help us find out.
Unequal pay
A representative sampling of 80,000 people was obtained by The Better Hearing Institute utilizing the same approach that the Census Bureau uses.
They found that people who have neglected hearing loss earn around $12,000 less per year than people who are able to hear.
Hey, that’s not fair!
We could dig deep to attempt to figure out what the cause is, but as the illustration above shows, hearing loss can impact your overall performance. The deal couldn’t be closed, sadly. Everything was going very well until the client thought he wasn’t listening to them. They didn’t want to deal with a firm that doesn’t listen.
He missed out on a commission of $1000.
The situation was misinterpreted. But that doesn’t change the impact on his career. If he was using hearing aids, imagine how different things could have been.
On the Job Injuries
Individuals who have neglected hearing loss are nearly 30% more likely to sustain a serious on-the-job injury according to a study conducted by the American Medical Association. And, your danger of ending up in the emergency room after a serious fall goes up by 300% according to other research.
And it might come as a shock that people with mild hearing loss had the highest risk among those with hearing loss. Maybe they don’t realize that hearing loss of any kind impairs a person at work.
Even if you have hearing loss, you can still be successful at work
Your employer has a lot to gain from you:
- Confidence
- Skills
- Personality
- Empathy
- Experience
Hearing loss shouldn’t overshadow these. But it is frequently a factor. You may not even recognize how great an impact on your job it’s having. Here are a few ways to decrease that impact:
- In order to have it in writing, it’s not a bad plan to write a sincere accommodations letter for your boss.
- Request a phone that is HAC (Hearing Aid Compatible). The sound goes straight into your ear instead of through background noise. You will need hearing aids that will work with this technology to use one.
- Asking for a written outline/agenda before attending a meeting. It will be easier to follow the conversation.
- Make sure your work area is brightly lit. Being able to see lips can help you follow along even if you don’t read lips.
- When you’re speaking with people, make sure you face them. Try to keep phone conversations to a minimum.
- Wear your hearing aids while your working every day, at all times. When you do this, many of the accommodations aren’t necessary.
- Be aware that you’re not required to divulge that you have hearing loss when you’re interviewing. And the interviewer may not ask. However, you might need to think about if your untreated hearing loss will affect your ability to have a successful interview. In that case, you might decide to divulge this before the interview.
- If a job is going to be beyond your capability you need to speak up. For instance, your boss might ask you to cover for somebody who works in a noisy part of the building. In order to make up for it, offer to take on a different job. In this way, it will never seem as if you’re not doing your part.
Hearing loss at work
Hearing loss can effect your work, even if it’s mild. But getting it treated will frequently minimize any obstacles you face with neglected hearing loss. We can help so contact us!