Imagine for a minute you’re a salesperson. Now picture that you have a call scheduled today with a very valuable client. Numerous agents from their offices have come together to discuss whether to hire your company for the job. As the call goes on, voices go up and down…and are sometimes difficult to hear. But you’re getting most of it.
And it sounds distorted and even less clear when you continue cranking up the volume. So you just read between the lines the best you can. You’re really good at that.
As you listen, the voices sound specifically muffled for about a minute. Then suddenly you hear, “so what can your company do to help us with this”?”
You panic. You have no clue what their company’s issue is because you didn’t hear the last portion of the discussion. This is your deal and your boss is depending on you. So now what?
Do you request they repeat themselves? They might think you weren’t paying attention. What about relying on some slippery sales jargon? No, they’ll see right through that.
People go through scenarios like this every day when they are at work. Sometimes, they try to pretend they’re okay and wing it.
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 questioned 80,000 individuals using the same method the Census Bureau uses to get a representative sampling.
They found that individuals who have untreated hearing loss make around $12,000 less per year than those who are able to hear.
That doesn’t seem fair!
We could dig deep to try to find out what the cause is, but as the example above demonstrates, hearing loss can affect your general performance. Unfortunately, he couldn’t close the deal. When they thought that the salesperson wasn’t listening to them, they pulled out. They didn’t want to deal with a company that doesn’t listen.
His commission on this contract would have been more than $1000.
It was just a misunderstanding. But how do you think this affected his career? If he was wearing hearing aids, think about how different things may have been.
Injuries on at work
Individuals who have neglected 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 danger of ending up in the emergency room after a significant fall increases by 300% according to other studies.
And people with only mild hearing loss were at the highest risk, surprisingly! Maybe, their hearing loss is mild enough that they’re not even aware of it.
How to have a successful career with hearing loss
Your employer has a great deal to gain from you:
- Empathy
- Personality
- Skills
- Experience
- Confidence
Hearing loss shouldn’t overshadow these. But it is frequently a factor. You may not even realize how big an impact on your job it’s having. Take measures to decrease the impact like:
- Request that you get a hearing aid compatible (HAC) phone. The sound doesn’t go through background noise but rather goes directly into your ear. You will require hearing aids that will work with this technology to use one.
- Know that you’re not required to reveal that you have hearing loss when you’re interviewing. And the interviewer can’t ask. But the other consideration is whether your hearing loss will have an effect on your ability to have a good interview. You will most likely need to make the interviewer aware of your condition if that’s the case.
- Keep a brightly lit work space. Seeing lips can help you follow along even if you don’t read lips.
- Look directly at people when you’re talking to them. Try to keep phone conversations to a minimum.
- Requesting a written overview/agenda before attending a meeting. Discussions will be easier to follow.
- Compose a sincere accommodations letter to your boss. By doing this, you have it in writing.
- Speak up when a task surpasses your abilities. For instance, your boss may ask you to cover for somebody who works in a noisy part of the building. So that you can make up for it, offer to undertake a different job. If you do that, your boss won’t think you’re coping out.
- Use your hearing aids at work every day, at all times. When you do this, many of the accommodations aren’t necessary.
Working with hearing loss
Hearing loss can impact your work, even if it’s slight. But lots of the challenges that neglected hearing loss can pose will be resolved by getting it treated. Call us today – we can help!
