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I will try to understand you if you are trying to be understood

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  • I will try to understand you if you are trying to be understood

    I generally work alone during my shifts, or perhaps I have a coworker for a few hours at either end.
    If I work with someone more than a couple of times, I will probably say the following to them:

    I have a small amount of hearing loss. Years ago I got my hearing tested, and the guy at the testing place asked why and I said "I work in a restaurant kitchen, and I often have trouble understanding my boss. I say he mumbles, he says I need my hearing checked. So here I am."
    At the end of my test, the tester said to me "Tell your boss I said he mumbles."
    HOWEVER, despite the fact that my hearing is as-good-as or better-than normal for someone my age, there were certain frequency ranges where my hearing is much worse than in others, and those are the frequencies of human speech. And my ability to distinguish sounds drops off sharply in the presence of background noise. This is damage I have done.
    So, while all of my hearing is as good as you would expect from someone my age, I have a comparatively hard time understanding what people are saying when they talk, especially in places with a lot of noise. And the stores I work in have a constant hum at about 75 decibels.
    So if it is important that I understand you, you are going to need to stand near me and speak loudly and clearly. Otherwise, ... I can tell that you are talking, but I can't understand what you say.


    Years ago I was working in a different convenience store, and there we always had two people working.
    I was ringing a customer up when my long-time co-worker came out of the cooler, 40 feet away, and said ... something. Kinda loudly.
    I completely ignored him, as in I didn't even react to the fact that he had spoken. This apparently struck my (regular) customer as strange, and he looked at me quizzically. I shrugged and said, "He knows I can't hear him."

    And that's really where I was at with that: I had explained (more than once), that if he wasn't within about ten feet of me I probably couldn't understand him at all. The fact that he didn't approach me before talking meant he didn't care if I heard him or not. So neither did I.


    Oddly enough, my hearing issues come into play much more with coworkers than customers. Customers take it pretty well when I walk closer to them and open with, "I'm sorry, I couldn't understand any of that." The only real problem is the rare occasion where there is a long line at the register and the rarer subset of times several groups begin a loud conversation: It turns into a feeling like ocean waves crashing into me, as I can't understand what anybody is saying. Even the customer right in front of me, struggling to be heard above the crowd.
    Happens maybe twice a year.
    But coworkers who think raising their voice a little will compensate for them being 25 feet away, that happens all the time.

    So I take the time to explain to them that I can't understand them when they stand that far away, because there is far too much other noise in the store. A couple of times.
    And then I just assume that if it mattered to them if I understood them, they'd stand closer.

  • #2
    Far too many people do not know how to communicate effectively. They mumble, mutter, barely open their mouths when they speak, and my favorite (not), walk away from you while they are talking to you.

    Okay, first of all, it is rude to walk away from someone when you are talking to them; this says to them that they are not worth a face-to-face. Second, the sound waves from your voice travel in the direction you are facing. Therefore, if you are facing away from someone and moving away from them, your voice gets more and more difficult to understand. You would think people would understand this simple concept, but they don't.
    Quoth SpyOne View Post
    The only real problem is the rare occasion where there is a long line at the register and the rarer subset of times several groups begin a loud conversation: It turns into a feeling like ocean waves crashing into me, as I can't understand what anybody is saying.
    And then, of course, when it's their turn at the register, they drop their voices and mumble/whisper when they talk to you. And of course they get angry when you can't hear them. Happened with me far too often when I worked in fast food.
    I don't have an attitude problem. You have a perception problem.
    My LiveJournal
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    • #3
      I have to deal with this too with people on cell phones, who insist on having the mic away from their face while rubbing it all over their body or whatever the hell it is they do that makes all this damn racket. Then when I say I can't hear what they're saying they get crystal clear for about one sentence, then go back to rubbing the phone all over while talking to somewhere away from the mic on the phone.
      https://www.youtube.com/user/HedgeTV
      Great YouTube channel check it out!

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      • #4
        I suspect some of mine are doing that weird bit of holding the phone basically horizontal with the mic several cm from their mouths, like they're posing for cameras Kartrashian style. I see that on public transit regularly, it's definitely a thing (and a really stupid one, IMO).
        "Crazy may always be open for business, but on the full moon, it has buy one get one free specials." - WishfulSpirit

        "Sometimes customers remind me of zombies, but I'm pretty sure that zombies are smarter." - MelindaJoy77

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        • #5
          I hear ya, SpyOne.

          Well, sorta. I too have hearing loss, with tinnitus in my left ear. I've gone through several levels of tests and checkups and the expert I spoke to said I don't need a hearing aid but I do have hearing loss of higher frequencies. It's moderate in my right ear but the test results for the left ear look like somebody falling off a cliff. Apparently that's also the cause of the tinnitus. I've had this for years and have just learned to get along with it.

          But it also causes problems in public places -- not surprisingly, the worst of them with people (almost always women) with very high voices who speak very softly. At my last place of employment the cashiers always had to stand in front of their lanes when they had no customers so we often chatted with each other. There was one girl whom I found completely impossible to understand, even when there was nobody else within 50 feet of us. If she'd spoken any more softly she'd have been whispering. I used to cringe when I saw her drifting towards me to talk and I did my best to avoid her. I hope she didn't think I disliked her but I would have to say "Sorry, I didn't quite hear that" after literally EVERY one of her sentences.

          So far I'm doing okay at the supermarket. For the folks who can't get off their damn phones, I just use body language and hand signals, with an absolute minimum of actual speech.

          Quoth XCashier View Post
          Far too many people do not know how to communicate effectively. They mumble, mutter, barely open their mouths when they speak, and my favorite (not), walk away from you while they are talking to you.

          *snip*
          This reminds me of my maternal grandfather. I can't count the number of times I'd be sitting at his kitchen table, still eating, and he'd be talking as he walked around the house (it was a VERY small house so that wasn't an issue) ... and then out the back door into the yard. (It wasn't just me; he did this to everybody.)

          Grandpa: "Talk talk talk talk ..."

          Listener: "Okay, Grandpa."

          Grandpa: "Talk talk talk talk ..."

          Listener: "Got it, Grandpa."

          Grandpa: "Talk talk talk talk ..."

          *back door slams and Listener can still hear Grandpa going down the sidewalk: "Talk talk talk talk" ...*

          He didn't actually carry on a conversation after he left the house, but he certainly would finish off a sentence or two EVEN THOUGH his listener was still sitting at the kitchen table.
          Customer service: More efficient than a Dementor's kiss
          ~ Mr Hero

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