"Out of the depths have I cried unto thee"
But no one is listening.
Well, I don't really know if they are listening, let alone speaking
As I can't hear.
I began a new job this week. It's not an onerous task or I should say, series of tasks. It doesn't seem like something I can't do. Except. The phone. The bane of my working existence. For starters, it seems like the phone I have doesn't pick up voices very well...I really don't want to think it's the hearing aids. They were expensive enough without having to worry about whether they do their job or not. But all of the voices I heard on the phone today seemed muffled. And I don't know if it's because I don't recognize the names they're asking for, or because I can't hear them. And how would I know? I cannot ask everyone to answer the phone for me. It doesn't work like that in an office. Do I ask for a new headset? Do I ask for the kind of thing which plugs into my ears without a handset? Shit. Sorry, it just makes me crazy and I don't know what to do about it exactly. It makes me not want to go to work. It makes me want to be anywhere but at my desk. It's hard enough to learn a new job, but do I have to have new equipment before I even get started? I hope not. That special dispensation thing makes me so uncomfortable. But I know I'll have to do something. I can't just turn up the volume, because then all I get is feedback. I'm hoping tomorrow is better, that somehow the voices will be somewhat clearer, the questions will make sense and I'll be able to discern. But right now, I'm not feeling too good about the whole thing.
2 comments:
Hot-button issues for me, for some reason (can't imagine why).
For starters: do your hearing aids have a "t-coil"/telecoil setting or switch? If not, well, it's probably too soon to replace them right away. BUT YOU NEED AIDS WITH THAT SETTING. (So does a certain woman approaching 79 years of age, but that's a separate topic.)
Second: do NOT hesitate to pitch the issue to your supervisor. Don't do it like a blackmail thing, of course -- either emotion- or ADA-based. More like, "Do you have any ideas how I can be as good at this new responsibility as I want to be?"
We got new phones at work a year or so ago. Took me a long time to get used to them. The problem: the default volume setting is much to low for me, and although I could turn up the volume during a conversation, the new setting didn't "stick" -- I had to keep re-setting it EVERY, SINGLE, TIME. Then I did a little research and found out how to change the default volume level, not just the level for a given conversation. Much happier now. (But, of course, using any OTHER phone in the building still frustrates me.)
When I first moved down here, I worked for a temp agency. One of my first jobs: substitute receptionist in a local college dean's office. It didn't hit me that most of the "reception" would be by phone, duh. Which in fact would have been okay, if only the phones there were T-coil compatible. WHICH THEY WEREN'T. So I left that job within about a half-hour of starting it; there was no point ruining not only my day, but the actual functioning of the office. (Of course I didn't just walk out. I explained the problem to the supervisor and then to the temp agency. They worked something out, I don't know what. And I do realize that Just Saying No isn't an option for someone in a permanent position!)
Okay, but did you get that I was simply feeling sorry for myself and wasn't really looking for hearing aid advice? I mean I get to whine about this once in a while...even if it does bother you to hear about it.
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