My office is a noisy place to work in. At 8:30 AM, a co-worker's phone rings.
I hear "fleedle," "fleedle," "fleedle," until the voice mail comes on, and the phone stops ringing. A bit later, my co-worker enters the office. I know who it is because even that early in the morning, she is loudly chewing and snapping gum. The door squeaks as she enters. We say hello to each other, and she goes into her office.
My co-worker always has her phone on speaker phone. I hear her using the phone - "bip, boop, bip, boop boop," and the phone begins ringing as she pushes the key pads on the phone. "Beeeeeee," "Beeeeee," "Beeeeee,"
"This is ------," she says. I don't understand the conversation, but I am aware of her talking. She is loud. I think the loudness distorts her voice, so while I am aware of her talking, I don't understand the conversation. All day long, I hear her snap gum even though a wall separates us. My hearing is THAT acute.
I hear the wheels of the mail cart and the mail clerk outside. The door squeaks again as she opens it and puts the mail inside the mail box for us, and picks up mail from the outbox.
All day long I hear environmental noise, either people in the corridor talking as they are walking to and from offices.
I wish my co-worker would stop snapping her gum as she chews. I wish she would not keep the phone on speaker phone every time she has a conversation. I not only hear her but I hear the other party speaking as well.
This goes on for eight hours every work day. How do you tune out a co-worker snapping gum? How do you tune out the conversations and noise in order to get work done?
How do you get past the distractions of noise?
It is going to take time. Maybe in a year the noises in the office won't be so distracting.
Is this what hearing people go through when they work in a noisy office?
Still, hearing with two cochlear implants is a gift.
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