There’s no excuse for discrimination in the workplace. And there’s absolutely no room for somebody questioning you whether or not you ‘really’ have a disability or are just ‘pretending’ to get around the rules. Sometimes, managers are very insensitive to their own employees’ needs and some don’t seem to have a sense of humor. And redditor u/xKatastrophex shared exactly how that looks in a viral post on the r/MaliciousCompliance subreddit. The redditor has been diagnosed with a hearing deficiency: it’s more than hard of hearing, but not enough to be considered deaf. So they wear hearing aids.
They explained how they were working at the cafe when the owner’s daughter demanded that they stop wearing their hearing aids, just because they had Bluetooth capabilities. Technically, the employee could play music through them. Not that they would. But they could. So the manager insisted that their employee didn’t need the hearing aids anyway because they weren’t “considered fully deaf.”
You’d better bet that that sort of talk didn’t sit right with the employee. They complied with the manager’s demand, maliciously. And their superior regretted their decision almost immediately. Scroll down for the full story in the redditor’s own words.
The redditor shared how their hearing aids caused a lot of tension with their manager, who demanded that they take them out
Image credits: Mark Paton (not the actual photo)
The employee followed the order to the letter, and the manager quickly realized they really messed up. Here’s exactly how things went down
Image credits: RODNAE Productions (not the actual photo)
Redditor u/xKatastrophex’s post went viral, getting over 28.6k upvotes. And other redditors were incredibly supportive of them and what they did.
According to the DO-IT Center, which empowers people with disabilities through technology and education, there’s often a lot of confusion over the terms hearing impaired, hard of hearing, deaf, and deafened.
“The term ‘hearing impaired’ is often used to describe people with any degree of hearing loss, from mild to profound, including those who are deaf and those who are hard of hearing. Many individuals who are deaf or hard of hearing prefer the terms ‘deaf’ and ‘hard of hearing,’ because they consider them to be more positive than the term ‘hearing impaired,’ which implies a deficit or that something is wrong that makes a person less than whole,” the Center explains.
Meanwhile, the term ‘deaf’ usually means hearing loss that is so severe, that there is very little or no functional hearing. ‘Hard of hearing,’ on the other hans, means hearing loss where there might be enough “residual hearing” that a hearing aid or FM system might be enough to help the person process speech.
“‘Deafened’ usually refers to a person who becomes deaf as an adult and, therefore, faces different challenges than those of a person who became deaf at birth or as a child. Deaf, deafened, and hard of hearing individuals may choose to use hearing aids, cochlear implants, and/or other assistive listening devices to boost available hearing. Alternatively, or in addition, they may read lips, use sign language, sign language interpreters, and/or captioning,” the DO-IT Center writes.
“People who are deaf or hard of hearing may have speech that is difficult to understand due to the inability to hear their own voice,” the Center adds.
Life coach Lindsay Hanson previously explained to Bored Panda during an interview that each and every one of us is responsible for setting the boundaries for what we’re willing to tolerate at work. If you find yourself in a toxic workplace, you always have the option of talking to either human resources or your managers about the things that bother you, whether small or serious.
“If you feel that there’s nothing you can do to change the situation and the company or people involved are unwilling to change, then you have to decide whether you’re willing to stay in that environment or not. A good question to ask yourself is, even if this toxic situation were to change, would I still want to work here?” she said.
According to the life coach, there are only two options for employees. Either they choose to find happiness or contentment in their position or they start looking for a way out.
“There is always a way to change your current situation—telling yourself you’re stuck feels very limiting,” she said.
Meanwhile, this isn’t the first time that Bored Panda has reported on an incident where someone discriminates against someone with a disability. Previously, we wrote about Paniora Nukunuku who has a fake leg, and how he had to deal with a rude woman who didn’t believe he should be able to park his car in the handicapped spot.
People were horrified to read about the discrimination. Here’s what they had to say
The post Woman Is Told That She Can't Wear Hearing Aids Because It Goes Against Earbuds Policy, Maliciously Complies first appeared on Bored Panda.
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