Dear Cranky Guest Who Changed His Tune,
You initially got snarky with me because I did not give you your cash in $20 bills. You must have asked me while I wasn’t looking at you. I admit I have a lot of hair so my hearing aids can be hard to see, especially from the front. When I apologized and pointed them out to you, you felt bad and backed down. I gave you your correct change, and everything was good again.
But for you and for all my guests that come to my window, I just want to say that this job is not easy for me because of my disability, so I would appreciate if you would cut me a little slack if I can’t hear you. I’m not doing it on purpose, I promise.
With everyone wearing masks these days, I struggle to understand people more than ever. Masks muffle sound and they also make it difficult for me to rely on lip reading. On top of that I’m wearing two high powered hearing aids which amplify EVERYTHING without discretion and I’m standing in what is basically a closed-off section of a very large, high ceilinged room with sounds echoing everywhere from the casino floor in front of me, all night long.
Just imagine this wall of really loud but ultimately unclear sound relentlessly coming at you from every angle. And you have to try your hardest to not just to pick out individual people’s speech through all of that, but understand it enough to answer their questions or otherwise assist them.
It’s a wonder I get it right as often as I do.
Your Poster Child for Hearing Loss Awareness,
Emily 🙃
P.S. To my coworkers, I also apologize… I’m not being standoffish when I don’t stand with you all and talk in groups. I swear, I’m friendly and nice if you take the time to talk to me individually, haha. It’s just really hard for me to follow group conversations, doubly so with the masks on, and I’m trying to conserve all of my concentration for the guests.
