Imagine for a minute you’re a salesperson. Today, you’re on a very important call with a potential client. Multiple agents from their offices have come together to talk about whether to hire your company for the job. As the call continues, voices go up and down…and are sometimes difficult to hear. But you’re fairly sure you got the gist of it.
And it sounds distorted and even less clear when you continue turning up the volume. So you simply do your best, reading between the lines. You’ve become pretty good at that.
As you listen, the voices sound specifically muffled for about a minute. This is the point where the potential client says “so precisely how will your company help us solve this?””
You freeze. You didn’t catch the last few minutes and aren’t certain what issue they’re trying to resolve. This is your deal and your boss is counting on you. So now what?
Do you ask them to repeat themselves? They may think you weren’t paying attention. Do you begin using a lot of sales jargon? No, they’ll see right through that.
Every single day, individuals everywhere are dealing with scenarios like this while working. Oftentimes, they try to pretend they’re okay and wing it.
But how is neglected hearing loss actually affecting your work in general? The following will help us find out.
Lower wages
A representative sampling of 80,000 people was collected by The Better Hearing Institute utilizing the same method that the Census Bureau uses.
Individuals who have neglected hearing loss earn, on average, $12,000 less per year.
Hey, that’s not fair!
Hearing loss effects your general performance so it’s not difficult to understand the above example. The deal couldn’t be closed, sadly. When they thought that the salesperson wasn’t paying attention to them, they went with someone else. They didn’t want to work with a firm that doesn’t listen.
His commission on this deal would have been over $1000.
The circumstances were misconstrued. But that doesn’t change the effect on his career. How might things have been different if he were using his hearing aids?
Injuries on the job
People who have neglected hearing loss are nearly 30% more likely to incur 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 serious fall increases by 300% according to other studies.
And people with only minor hearing loss were at the greatest risk, unexpectedly! Perhaps, 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:
- Confidence
- Empathy
- Experience
- Personality
- Skills
These positive qualities shouldn’t be dominated by hearing loss. But it is frequently a factor. It could be impacting your job more than you recognize. Here are a few ways to decrease that impact:
- Write a sincere accommodations letter to your boss. By doing this, you have it in writing.
- Wear your hearing aids at work every day, all the time. When you do, lots of of the accommodations won’t be necessary.
- If a task 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 loud. Offer to do a different job to make up for it. This way, it never seems as if you’re not doing your part.
- Request that you get a hearing aid compatible (HAC) phone. The sound goes directly into your ear instead of through background noise. In order to utilize this technology you will need a hearing aid that’s compatible.
- Understand that during a job interview, you aren’t required to disclose that you have hearing loss. And the interviewer can’t ask. Conversely, you might need to consider if your neglected hearing loss will affect your ability to have a successful interview. In that situation, you may decide to divulge this before the interview.
- When you’re speaking with people, make certain you face them. Try not to have phone conversations as much as possible.
- Before a meeting, find out if you can get a written agenda and outline. It will be easier to keep up with the conversation.
- Be certain your work space is well lit. Being able to see lips can help you follow even if you’re not a lip reader.
Working with hearing loss
Even if you have minor hearing loss, it can still impact your performance at work. But many of the obstacles that neglected hearing loss can create will be solved by having it treated. Give us a call right away – we can help!