Good Record-keeping Helps New Business Owners Avoid Tax-time Headaches
How Hearing Loss Can Affect Your Ability To Work
Terra Fields
When it comes to hearing loss, many people think about the ways that losing their hearing will affect their personal life. In order to truly realize the impact that hearing loss can have on your daily interactions, you must consider how hearing loss can affect your professional life as well.
Here are three ways that hearing loss can affect your ability to complete work-related tasks.
1. Hearing loss can compromise communication.
Being able to communicate effectively with customers, vendors, and co-workers is critical when it comes to the success of any employee. When you suffer from hearing loss, you may find it challenging to communicate with those you interact with at work on a regular basis.
Compromised communication could strain your interpersonal relations, and may even wind up costing you a promotion. Be sure that you are having your hearing tested regularly to check for hearing loss so that you can take the appropriate measures to ensure your hearing loss doesn't affect your ability to communicate effectively while working.
2. Hearing loss can compromise your safety.
Many people work in an environment where vigilance is critical for maintaining safety. Without the ability to hear warning alarms sounding on heavy machinery or the warning shouts of your fellow workers, you could be placing your life at risk each time you clock in for your shift.
If you suspect that you are suffering from even the slightest bit of hearing loss, you should visit with your audiologist to discover how you can prevent your hearing loss from becoming a safety hazard while you are working.
3. Hearing loss can cause you to become isolated.
For many people, work is a social environment. Co-workers become friends and enjoy interacting with one another while taking breaks or working on group projects. If you are suffering from hearing loss, you may be embarrassed by the fact that you have to ask your co-workers to repeat what they say in order for you to hear and understand.
This embarrassment can lead to a withdraw from your work community, causing isolation and loneliness. Regular hearing tests to identify and address hearing problems can be beneficial in helping you remain integrated with your work community.
Understanding how hearing loss can affect your professional life will help motivate you to engage in the type of regular testing needed to identify and treat the root cause of hearing loss before it can adversely affect your performance at work.
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I have been a business owner for years, and I want to share some tips for success with new entrepreneurs out there who are struggling. I have had my share of business ups and downs, but there was one lesson that it took me way too long to learn: Good financial record-keeping year-long keeps tax time from being so stressful. During my first year in business, I kept most business expense receipts, but when tax time arrived, I found out that I needed to save much more than just those receipts. Thanks to technology, I was able to recover most of the documentation I needed, but it was a huge headache. I quickly invested in good record-keeping software and it made tax time much less stressful during the following years.