Large Proportion Of Workers Hide Their Hearing Loss At Work

Hello and welcome to our blog here at the Lisburn Hearing Centre, the number 1 hearing centre in Northern Ireland. Today we are looking at new research which has shown that huge swathes of the working population are hiding their poor hearing from the rest of the workforce rather than admit they have a problem.

5 Million With Hearing Issues

There are over 5 million people in the UK who have hearing issues and this equates to about 1 in 6 of the working population. Unfortunately even though around half of these people could improve the quality of their lives by wearing a hearing aid they choose not to do so and instead some go to elaborate lengths to hide the fact that their hearing has deteriorated.

Dealing With Hearing Loss At Work

The effect of hiding hearing loss can be quite dramatic for some people, with many losing confidence at work and in social situations, they have a feeling of uselessness and feel marginalised from their work colleagues. Ways of hiding their hearing loss, found the research study by OnePoll, were avoiding using the telephone at work (which as you can imagine can raise all sorts of problems), ducking out of meetings and not socialisng with their fellow employees which can give others the impression of them being loners. Many workers just relied on lip reading to get them through the working day and many had to continually ask their colleagues to repeat themselves.

Work situations can often be challenging at the best of times so to have the added problem of not being able to hear makes things just a whole lot more stressful. Workplaces can be places where there is a lot of background noise which can also exacerbate the problem.

Many people have the perceived idea that if they wear a hearing aid at work it will make them look old and it would lead to negative connotations about them.

Discreet Hearing Aid Devices

But what many don`t seem to realise is that the modern hearing aid is a very discreet device and some models such as the Widex models can be adjusted using a smartphone. Hearing well is such an essential part of life and helps with peoples mental and emotional wellbeing. Don`t suffer if there is no need, call into Lisburn Hearing Centre at the earliest opportunity for your free hearing test.