Just picture for a minute you’re a salesperson. Now picture that you have a call scheduled today with a really important client. Numerous agents from their offices have come together to discuss whether to employ your company for the job. All of the various voices get a bit jumbled and hard to comprehend. But you’re hearing most of it.
And it sounds distorted and even less clear when you continue cranking the volume up. So you simply do your best, reading between the lines. You’ve become fairly good at that.
There comes a point in the discussion where things get particularly hard to hear. Then suddenly you hear, “so what can your company do to help us with this”?”
You freeze. You didn’t catch the last few minutes and aren’t sure what problem they’re attempting to solve. Your boss is depending on you to seal this deal. What can you do?
Do you ask them to repeat themselves? They might think you weren’t paying attention. Do you begin using a lot of sales jargon? No, they’ll see right through that.
Individuals go through scenarios like this every day when they are at work. Oftentimes, they try to pretend they’re okay and wing it.
So in general, how is your work being impacted by your hearing loss? The following will help us find out.
Lower wages
The Better Hearing Institute surveyed 80,000 people utilizing the same method the Census Bureau uses to obtain a representative sampling.
They discovered that people who have neglected hearing loss make around $12,000 less per year than people who can hear.
That doesn’t seem fair!
Hearing loss effects your general performance so it isn’t hard to understand the above example. The deal couldn’t be closed, unfortunately. Everything was going excellently until the client thought he wasn’t listening to them. They decided to work with a company that listens better.
His commission on this deal would have been more than $1000.
The situation was misinterpreted. But that doesn’t change the impact on his career. How may things have been different if he were using his hearing aids?
Injuries on the job
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 serious work accident. Studies have also revealed a 300% increased chance of having a serious fall and winding up in the emergency room.
And it may come as a surprise that people with mild hearing loss had the highest risk among those with hearing loss. Maybe, their hearing loss is minor enough that they’re not even aware of it.
Even if you have hearing loss, you can still have a successful career
You have so much to offer an employer:
- Skills
- Empathy
- Experience
- Confidence
- Personality
Hearing loss shouldn’t dominate these. But it is frequently a factor. It may be having an effect on your job more than you recognize. Take measures to minimize the impact like:
- Be aware that you aren’t required to reveal that you have hearing loss when you’re interviewing. And it isn’t okay for the interviewer to ask. But the other consideration is whether your hearing loss will have an effect 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.
- Wear your hearing aids while your working every day, all the time. If you’re wearing your hearing aids you might not even need many of the accommodations.
- Compose a sincere accommodations letter to your boss. By doing this, you have it in writing.
- Request that you get a hearing aid compatible (HAC) phone. The sound goes straight into your ear instead of through background noise. In order to utilize this technology you will need a hearing aid that’s appropriate.
- Keep a well lit work space. Being able to see lips can help you follow even if you don’t read lips.
- When you’re speaking with people, make sure you face them. Try not to talk on the phone as much as you can.
- Requesting a written outline/agenda before attending a meeting. Conversations will be easier to keep up with.
- If a job is going to be beyond your capability you need to speak up. Your boss may, for example, ask you to go and do some work in a part of the building that can be really noisy. In order to make up for it, offer to take on a different job. In this way, it never seems as if you’re not doing your part.
Hearing loss at work
Even if you have mild hearing loss, it can still impact your work performance. But many of the obstacles that untreated hearing loss can pose will be resolved by getting it treated. Contact us right away – we can help!
