Hello Donisha,
I suffer from hearing loss which has progressed over the last 10 years or so. I wear hearing aids.
I currently work from home (full time) and mainly use online chat software and e-mail to communicate with colleagues. The work from home was as a result of an office close 2 years ago (not related to hearing) which impacted a number of staff and was in main due to reduce number of satellite offices - i.e. reduce costs.
The view at the time was to be predominately home based but with visits to client and company HQ office on a business need basis, although that was not incorporated into terms of contract.
My work duties mainly resolve around use excel and specific software.
Recent occupational health assessment has determined I struggle with face to face comms - (hearing does fluctuate) and rely on lip reading. Phone comms are very difficult or impossible. This is even with use of hearing aids. The report illustrated that the use of online chat and e-mail with comms in written format is most suited to me as is working from home.
Due to the hearing loss phone comms and visits to offices have reduced significantly, due to my inability to hear effectively. This has become an issue with employer / client, to the point where they are considering adding new employee who would be located at client office and where my duties would change to better suit a non client facing role. Client desires more interaction particularly as they see growth on the account I work on. I would expect that my tasks in this case would be shared with new employee and as the account grows it would benefit.
I have asked employer to define the interactions expected from client - frequency, type etc so that I may research how to solution.
Employer has been generally supportive of my hearing issues as they've worsened but they need to balance this with business needs of the client.
Would be grateful for any insight and would be interested to read of others who have been in similar position.
Thanks for reading.
