Absenteeism Higher Among Hearing Impaired People
Editor: It's no surprise to folks who know about hearing loss that it
can be very tiring. Now research indicates that folks with hearing loss
are more likely to take sick time at work. Here's the story from the folks
at Hear-It.org
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April 2008
The extra energy expended on overcoming hearing problems takes its toll
on hearing-impaired employees. This may explain why hearing-impaired
employees are likely to take more sick-days than their colleagues with
normal hearing. However, a few common sense precautions have been shown to
help hearing-impaired employees perform as reliably as their colleagues.
Hearing problems can wear on a hearing-impaired individual's mental
health. A Dutch survey among people in the workplace found that
hearing-impaired employees are five times more likely than their
co-workers with normal hearing to experience stress so severe that they
must take sick-days.
More than 75% of the hearing-impaired respondents had called in sick
during the preceding year, as compared to 55% of their colleagues with
normal hearing. One in four of the hearing-impaired respondents cite
stress and burn-out as the reasons for calling in sick, as compared to
just 7% of those with normal hearing. Neither age nor gender affected the
number of sick-days.
The survey included responses from 150 hearing impaired employees and
60 with normal hearing from various workplaces in Holland.
According to common experience, hearing-impaired employees are able to
perform at the same level and reliability as their colleagues with normal
hearing when certain conditions are met. Generally, affected individuals
must recognize their hearing loss, appropriate technical assistance must
be made available in the workplace for hearing impaired employees, and
there must be an open dialogue about the hearing issue between hearing
impaired employees, their colleagues and management.
