What has my employer done?!

I previously told you about my search for a job and the predicament I faced of whether to tell them about my hearing issues and tinnitus. Well I am finally employed and have some bloody great news for you...

Yes that's right, somebody has actually taken me on as an employee! Finally! Get the banners and party poppers out! Send my bank manager a thoughtful gift!

Anyway, the good news is that it was the only employer I had the opportunity to tell about my tinnitus and hearing loss in the interview. Remember that one? They've taken me on, welcomed me into their busy and stressed arms, thankful for another member of staff to help with the humongous work load they're facing! So, after a tour of the small, humble, red brick building of this old fashioned GP surgery (that has the smell to prove it), we started off by putting on some headsets. I'd be answering the phones. ALL day. EVERY day. Oh, crap.

To start with, I would just be listening to a senior member of staff do the job, and with any luck, have some of the information sink in so I can, one day, do the same thing. As these conversations are mainly with elderly people and patients clearly putting us on loud speaker in their cars, panic and anxiety starts to build up in my tiny woman-child body. I can barely hear the majority of the callers and start to think that there is no way I'd be able to do this job. But I need this job. Holidays and beers don't buy themselves as we all know!

As far as I was concerned, I had two options...

1) Bottle up my worries like vomit, wait until I get home, cry in front of a mirror and never turn up to the job ever again. Leaving me poor as well as useless.

or

2) Tell them! After all, I did explain my impairment at the interview and they still enthusiastically (assumed), took me on...

I'm now a mature, independent woman (sing Beyoncé now!) and sometimes logical so, you can probably guess, went with option 2. The way I look at it, you have to own your problems. Especially if you're being honest about them from the start, you then need to be able to say "You're my employer, you wanted me and you have a duty to make this environment suitable for me to work in. So what are you going to do?" - or in so many words. I put it way less aggressive than this, but that's what I was thinking when I told them I was worried about not being able to hear the patients on the phone.

Here's where it got good...

The wonderful lady manager that had been training me, told me that they had already been thinking about how they could help me. She had set up a work station for me away from the main phone bank, where the noise level gets pretty insane when there's another 4 people talking on the phones, so I wouldn't have so much background noise effecting my hearing. A special little station just for me! She also told me if that I'm ever struggling, to let her know and they can find other non-phone based admin work instead. It took all my might not to hug this woman and jump up and down with her in my arms, or throw her in the air like dads do to toddlers. New best friend alert! Very unprofessional though, apparently, so I just thanked her like a normal person.

I was so chuffed with the outcome of telling her my worries, before I started to cry, that it took me a couple of days to realise that they've put the 'special kid' in the corner. But that's ok, not only will I be able to do my job, (which I've been absolutely smashing for 2 weeks now, even if I do say so myself, ahthankyou) but that's also the corner where they keep the birthday buffets! What more could I possibly want from a mundane, low paid admin job? A special corner and a mouth full of mini sausages! Fantastic.

I wonder what else I can get out of them...