Just picture for a minute you’re a salesperson. Today, you’re on a very important call with a potential client. Your company is being looked at for a job and numerous individuals from your company have gathered on a conference call. As the call continues, voices rise and fall…and are sometimes difficult to hear. But you’re getting most of it.
And it sounds distorted and even less clear when you keep turning up the volume. So you just read between the lines the best you can. You’ve become fairly good at that.
There comes a point in the discussion where things get particularly difficult to hear. Then all of a sudden you hear, “so what can your company do to assist us with this”?”
You freeze. You have no clue what their company’s problem is because you didn’t catch the last part of the conversation. This is your contract and your boss is depending on you. What do you do?
Should you confess you didn’t hear them and ask them to reprise what they said? They might think you weren’t paying attention. What about relying on some slick sales jargon? No, that will be too obvious.
People go through situations like this every day when they are at work. Oftentimes, they try to pretend they’re fine and wing it.
But how is untreated hearing loss actually affecting your work as a whole? Let’s see.
Lower wages
A representative sampling of 80,000 people was collected by The Better Hearing Institute utilizing the same technique that the Census Bureau uses.
They found that people who have untreated hearing loss make around $12,000 less per year than those who are able to hear.
Hey, that isn’t fair!
Hearing loss impacts your overall performance so it isn’t difficult to understand the above example. Sadly, he couldn’t close the deal. Everything was going excellently until the client thought he wasn’t listening to them. They didn’t want to deal with a company that doesn’t listen.
He missed out on a commission of $1000.
It was only a misunderstanding. But how do you think this affected his career? If he was using hearing aids, think about how different things could have been.
Injuries on the job
People who have untreated 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 chance of ending up in the emergency room after a significant fall increases by 300% according to other studies.
And individuals with only minor hearing loss were at the highest risk, surprisingly! Maybe they don’t grasp that hearing loss of any kind impairs an individual at work.
Even if you have hearing loss, you can still be successful at work
Your employer has a great deal to gain from you:
- Empathy
- Skills
- Confidence
- Experience
- Personality
Hearing loss shouldn’t overshadow these. However, that doesn’t mean it’s not a factor. You may not even recognize how great an effect on your job it’s having. Take steps to minimize the impact like:
- Before attending a meeting, ask if you can get a written agenda and outline. It will be easier to follow the discussion.
- When you’re talking with people, make sure you look directly at them. Try to keep phone conversations to a minimum.
- Never disregard wearing your hearing aids while you’re working and all of the rest of the time. When you do, many of the accommodations won’t be necessary.
- Recognize that during a job interview, you’re not required to disclose that you have hearing loss. And the interviewer may not ask. But the other side is whether your hearing loss will have an effect on your ability to have a good interview. You will probably need to make the interviewer aware of your condition if that’s the situation.
- If a task is going to surpass your capability you need to speak up. Your boss may, for example, ask you to go and do some work in an area of the building that can be really noisy. Offer to do something else to make up for it. This way, it never seems like you’re not doing your part.
- Ask for a phone that is HAC (Hearing Aid Compatible). The sound goes directly into your ear instead of through background noise. You will need hearing aids that are compatible with this technology to use one.
- Make sure your work area is well lit. Even if you’re not a lip reader, looking directly at them can help you understand what’s being said.
- In order to have it in writing, it’s not a bad idea to draft up a sincere accommodations letter for your boss.
Working with hearing loss
Hearing loss can impact your work, even if it’s mild. But having it treated will often get rid of any barriers you face with untreated hearing loss. Call us right away – we can help!
