Profoundly or Severely Deaf: How Well Can You Use the Phone?

Profoundly or Severely Deaf: How Well Can You Use the Phone?

Did you ever wonder what it would be like to work at a pizza joint like, for example, Dominos Pizza? Ever wonder if you think you could do the job working the phone line taking orders on a busy Friday night while some 120 pizzas are cooked every hour? The constant but loud ringing of the phones while order takers answer the calls when accuracy of orders are essential for a business to survive. Do you think you can do the job working the phone line? Have you ever worked as one or something similar?

Well, I worked both as a Dominos Pizza driver and phone order taker when I was 19 years old in a town called Duluth, Georgia. Worked there for about a year or so until I found a better paying job. About when I was 27 years old in 1992 I worked as a manager for Dominos Pizza in the Maryland area like Edgewater, New Carrollton, and Bowie whose pizza stores were owned by one owner. I ran the stores, manned the phones, hired/fired people, ordered food and sodas for the store's walk in refrigerator, did my daily accounting, made the pizzas, cut the pizzas during peak periods (120 to 140 pizzas per hour), barked out orders to drivers, helped new drivers with the map on where to take the pizza. I even made a few trips to unsatisfied customers when I would deliver the pizzas myself while the asst manager ran the store. And so on. My hearing loss is between moderate and severe. Though all that work was an iteresting experience that went on for almost two years until finally I got accepted into graduate school at University of Idaho to get my M.S. degree in Geophysics. It was time to move on and move up.

Do you think you could do that job? Handle phone calls from many different strangers?

Now, what got me thinking is what would be a good litmus test to rate how well one can converse over the phone and with who. I figured I'd use the Pizza Joint Litmus Test. If you say you can use the phone would it be only with voices you'd recognized. Or with certain members of family only? Or it can be with anybody, even strangers and even those with a heavy foreign accent? Would you be that confident enough to take orders through the phone knowing that the pizza joint depends on accurate orders for their business survival, would you be able to do it?

Below are two polls. If you are profoundly deaf (anything greater than 90 dB loss) and wears a hearing aid, please answer the poll.

The other poll under the "Severely Deaf" caption are for those who have severe hearing loss (70 to 90 dB) and wears a hearing aid then please answer the poll there.

Profoundly Deaf: How well can you use the phone?
	I could easily take phone orders while working at a pizza joint.
	I may be able to take phone orders but only under limited conditions while working.
	I could take a few pizza orders but only if my family calls or voice I recognize.
	I would unable to do such a job.
pollcode.com free polls

Severely Deaf: How well can you use the phone?
	I could easily take phone orders while working at a pizza joint.
	I may be able to take phone orders but only under limited conditions while working.
	I could take a few pizza orders but only if my family calls or voice I recognize.
	I would unable to do such a job.
pollcode.com free polls

UPDATE: For those who are in the profoundly deaf category and clicked on "I could easily take phone orders while working at a pizza joint" or "I may be able to take phone orders but only under limited conditions while working," I would very much like for you to contact me, via email (see address at top of blogpage) so we can exchange cell phone numbers and talk this over the phone. Thanks.