Just picture for a minute you’re a salesperson. Today, you’re on a very important call with a possible client. Your company is being looked at for a job and several people from your business have come together on a conference call. All of the various voices get a bit jumbled and difficult to comprehend. But you’re getting most of it.
Cranking the speaker up just makes it sound more distorted. So you simply make do, reading between the lines. You’ve become fairly good at that.
As you try to listen, the voices sound specifically muffled for about a minute. Then suddenly you hear, “so what can your company do to assist us with this”?”
You panic. You didn’t hear the last few minutes and aren’t certain what problem they’re trying to resolve. Your boss is counting on you to close this deal. So now what?
Do you ask them to repeat themselves? They might think you weren’t paying attention. What about resorting to some slick sales jargon? No, they’ll see right through that.
Every single day, people everywhere go through scenarios like this at work. They attempt to read between the lines and cope.
So in general, how is your work being affected by your hearing loss? The following can help us find out.
Lower wages
The Better Hearing Institute surveyed 80,000 people using the same method the Census Bureau uses to obtain a representative sampling.
They discovered that people who have untreated hearing loss make around $12,000 less per year than those who can hear.
Hey, that isn’t fair!
We could dig deep to attempt to figure out what the cause is, but as the illustration above demonstrates, hearing loss can impact your general performance. The deal couldn’t be closed, regrettably. When they thought that the salesperson wasn’t paying attention to them, they pulled out. They didn’t want to deal with a firm that doesn’t listen.
His commission on this deal would have been over $1000.
It was only a misunderstanding. But that doesn’t change the effect on his career. If he was wearing hearing aids, think about how different things might have been.
Workplace Injuries
People who have untreated hearing loss are almost 30% more likely to incur a significant on-the-job injury according to a study carried out by the American Medical Association. And, your risk of ending up in the emergency room after a significant fall goes up by 300% according to other research.
And individuals with only minor hearing loss were at the greatest risk, unexpectedly! Maybe, their hearing loss is mild enough that they don’t even know about it.
Even if you have hearing loss, you can still have a successful career
You have a lot to offer an employer:
- Confidence
- Empathy
- Skills
- Personality
- Experience
These positive attributes shouldn’t be dominated by hearing loss. However, that doesn’t mean it’s not a factor. You may not even know how big an effect on your job it’s having. Here are some ways to decrease that impact:
- Be certain your work space is well lit. Seeing lips can help you follow even if you don’t read lips.
- When you’re talking with people, make sure you look directly at them. Try to keep phone calls to a minimum.
- Request a phone that is HAC (Hearing Aid Compatible). The sound goes directly into your ear and not through background noise. You will need hearing aids that will work with this technology to use one.
- Never neglect wearing your hearing aids at work and all of the rest of the time. When you do this, lots of of the accommodations aren’t necessary.
- If a task is going to be beyond your capability you need to speak up. For instance, your boss may want you to cover for somebody who works in a really loud area. Offer to do something else to make up for it. By doing that, your boss won’t think you’re coping out.
- Write a respectful accommodations letter to your boss. This way, you have it in writing.
- Before a meeting, find out if you can get a written agenda and outline. Conversations will be easier to keep up with.
- Recognize that when you’re interviewing, you aren’t required to disclose that you have hearing loss. And the interviewer can’t ask. But the other consideration is whether your hearing loss will have an impact on your ability to have a successful interview. You will most likely need to make the interviewer aware of your condition if that’s the situation.
Hearing loss at work
Hearing loss can effect your work, even if it’s slight. But getting it treated will often eliminate any obstacles you face with untreated hearing impairment. We can help so contact us!