Insight: My negative experience working for a deaf charity (BSL)

I worked for a charity who support deaf people for eight years. I was one of three deaf people in a team of about fifteen. I had thought about writing this blog for a long time but I put it off as I was worried about losing my job or starting arguments in the team. Luckily I am able to write anonymously which I am grateful for and thankfully I now have a new job!

I started working at this charity back in 2011 and I really did love what I did. I enjoyed meeting deaf clients and I was proud to be flexible in my communication. However, I really struggled with office politics and I think it’s about time someone said something publicly too. Who knows who else struggles with this?

Despite deaf awareness being at the forefront of what the charity do, hearing colleagues would chatter amongst each other non stop from their desks. I often worked with my back to most of the office and when I did turn around I would see laughter from most of them and no attempts to fill me in on whats been said.

At the start of my job years ago I would ask one colleague, who was kind, what everyone was laughing about, but eventually I got fed up of trying to play catch up. So I just focused on my work, grateful for the days I managed to get out of the office and into the community which I loved the most.

I found it hard being deaf and expected to work from a screen without any breaks to chat or just catch a breather. My line manager was quite difficult, she would check on me if I disappeared to the toilet and if I chatted to a visitor for too long, she would come and find me if she thought it was time for me to get back to the desk.

I don’t know if it’s a hearing thing but my line manager was really particular about sticking to our work times. If I arrived three minutes late, I had to work three minutes over, even if it meant rushing for my train home. There was no flexibility or benefit of the doubt. I chatted to other deaf friends who worked for other charities about this and they have a much more positive experience so perhaps in this case I was just unlucky!

What did upset me though was realising that hearing staff would talk about myself and the other deaf staff when we were merely sitting in the same room. A young girl, a lovely CODA, was on work experience in our office and she was sitting next to me doing some tasks I had given to her. I then noticed she paused from her work, looked up and turned round. I asked her what was wrong?

She told me that the others had been joking about eating some office cakes before me and the other deaf staff knew about them. I couldn’t believe it. So I asked them about it. The staff brushed it off as though it was just a joke, but I wouldn’t have even known about the comment if the girl on work experience had not told me! Is that not hearing privilege?

If me or the other deaf staff used BSL, the hearing staff could see and understand us. But for them to chat about us behind our backs when we are in the same room I found really offensive.

I knew from then that whatever I did, I wasn’t going to be seen as equal to the other hearing staff. I felt like a hypocrite working there for deaf people and experiencing what I felt was discrimination and privileged behaviour.

The hearing staff even took it for granted that we couldn’t hear what they said and often made jibes and jokes about ‘typical deaf people.’ I don’t know why they wanted to work for a deaf charity if they had a chip on their shoulder about deaf people in general.

It was after that experience that I started looking for a job elsewhere. Luckily I found one, not in a deaf charity unfortunately but for a mainstream charity doing similar work to what I did. Our focus now is on hearing elderly people, but there are lots of ways that I feel useful and able to use my skills to do the job to the best of my ability.

The staff at my current workplace are really friendly and open minded and they treat me like one of them – which is the opposite of what the hearing staff at the deaf charity did. It worries me that there are some hearing BSL users who ultimately discriminate against deaf staff in their own place of work.

I hope that if anyone is experiencing this now that you find the courage that I couldn’t and fight back. Make a complaint, fight for your rights and make it clear that it isn’t acceptable behaviour. I have learnt a lot about myself regarding being confident and speaking up, and I am just glad I was able to move away from the job and have a fresh start.

This blog has been written anonymously as part of the Insight series – where readers are invited to share their story or news about their interesting job with The Limping Chicken. If you have a story to share please email rebecca@rawithey.com 

Image courtesy of i-stock photos.