Imagine 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 individuals from your company have gathered on a conference call. All of the different voices get a little garbled and difficult to understand. But you’re quite certain you got the gist of it.
Cranking the speaker up just makes it sound more distorted. So you just do your best at filling in the blanks. You’ve become pretty good at that.
There comes a point in the conversation where things get particularly hard to hear. Then all of a sudden 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. This is your deal and your boss is depending on you. What do you do?
Do you ask them to repeat themselves? They’ll think you were distracted. What about relying on some slippery sales jargon? No, that will be too conspicuous.
Every single day, people everywhere go through situations like this while working. They attempt to read between the lines and cope.
But how is neglected hearing loss actually impacting your work as a whole? Let’s find out.
Unequal pay
A representative sampling of 80,000 people was obtained by The Better Hearing Institute utilizing the same method that the Census Bureau uses.
They discovered that individuals who have untreated hearing loss make around $12,000 less per year than people who can hear.
Hey, that’s not fair!
Hearing loss effects your general performance so it isn’t hard to understand the above example. Sadly, he couldn’t close the deal. When they got the impression that the salesperson wasn’t listening to them, they pulled out. They didn’t want to work with a company that doesn’t listen.
He missed out on a $1000 commission.
It was just a misunderstanding. But how do you think this affected his career? How might things have been different if he were wearing his hearing aids?
On the Job Injuries
A study reported in the Journal of The American Medical Association discovered that people with untreated hearing loss are nearly 30% more likely to suffer a significant work accident. Studies also show a 300% increased chance of having a serious fall and ending up in the emergency room.
And people with only mild hearing loss were at the greatest risk, unexpectedly! Perhaps, their hearing loss is mild enough that they don’t even know about it.
How to have a successful career with hearing loss
Your employer has a lot to gain from you:
- Personality
- Confidence
- Skills
- Empathy
- Experience
Hearing loss shouldn’t overshadow these. However, that doesn’t mean it won’t be a factor. You might not even recognize how huge an impact on your job it’s having. Here are some ways to decrease that impact:
- Write a sincere accommodations letter to your boss. By doing this, you have it in writing.
- Request a phone that is HAC (Hearing Aid Compatible). The sound goes straight into your ear and not through background noise. In order to use this technology you will need a hearing aid that’s appropriate.
- When you’re speaking with people, make sure you face them. Try not to talk on the phone as much as possible.
- Before a meeting, find out if you can get a written agenda and overview. It will be easier to follow the conversation.
- Wear your hearing aids while you’re at work every day, all the time. When you do, lots of of the accommodations won’t be necessary.
- Speak up when a job is beyond your abilities. For example, 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.
- Be certain your work space is well lit. Even if you’re not a lip reader, looking directly at them can help you make out what’s being said.
- Know that you aren’t required to reveal that you have hearing loss during an interview. And it isn’t okay for the interviewer to ask. However, you may need to consider if your neglected hearing loss will affect your ability to have a successful interview. In that situation, you might choose to divulge this before the interview.
Working with hearing loss
Even if you have slight hearing loss, it can still effect your performance at work. But many of the challenges that neglected hearing loss can create will be solved by having it treated. We can help so give us a call!