studio craque 54 🏳️‍🌈5d ago

Anxious because I need to have the hearing disability talk with my boss and I don't know how to do it where I don't sound like I'm complaining. I just don't really know how to breach this that doesn't sound like I am making my hearing difficulties become his problem.

Something he does is mumble as he speaks, and CC will have a hard time, and I'll miss whole sentences and a lot of words. He also called me "Mr Matt" (which I can't stand) but the CC completely got it wrong and showed something like "Mr Metz" and I had no clue it was me, so it took me an extra few seconds to register, in which time he got frustrated that I didn't answer fast enough and moved on to the next person, so I had to interrupt him.

I guess I just need to give him a reminder. If he doesn't know I'm having trouble, it will never get fixed, but my CPTSD and wanting to be liked and fawning when I feel like I'm being a nuisance is getting in the way.

#CPTSD

Show threadAdrian Cockcroft
@dtauvdiodr Maybe tell him you use CC to compensate for your hearing issues (so it’s not about him) but sometimes CC doesn’t catch what he’s saying (so it’s the CCs fault) and you might need to ask him to repeat things (so he knows it wasn’t you not paying attention). Then when you say “pardon?” or whatever, he might feel better about repeating himself.
May 11 at 8:56pmMona for iPhone
Show threadstudio craque 54 🏳️‍🌈2d ago

@adrianco I decided to take this advice, but I took a leadership point of view and brought it up to the entire team instead of just my boss.

In our morning status when we got to the parking lot I asked the team if I could show some vulnerability for a minute. That this was hard for me to bring up, but I have a hearing disability, and use CC heavily. That it gets stuff wrong all the time, and if everyone could please be patient if you say my name and I don't answer right away, because I am reading CC.

This was scary for me. I did this at my last job and everyone got silent and the whole thing got uncomfortable. One particular person blocked me from being given admin. It was a nightmare.

But here, I got heart emojis from the team. People started troubleshooting how to help me in big meetings, the Director was on and also spoke up to ask for me to also be patient with them when they forget, but they are all here to support.

#CPTSD #accessibility #vulnerability #connectivelabor

Show threadAdrian Cockcroft2d ago
@dtauvdiodr Awesome, well played and great to hear you finally have a supportive environment. I hope everything continues to go well.