Watch Your Hearing

[clovisguy]

I took EVR from Royal Mail a couple of years' ago after 29 years (seems like a life sentence). I spent 18 years of that checking mail on the various machines. Last year, I decided to have my hearing checked out. Result ? I now wear two hearing aids, as my hearing is not what it should be or was. I blame the noise in the Mail Centre, esp on the machinery. I complained about the noise levels on more than one occassion, but was told it was within 'acceptable levels.' Aye right ! I honestly feel RM ought to pay for Hearing checks on Machine Operators say every 3 years, and if an operators' hearing is affected, then they should at least subsidize the cost of hearing aids. Hearing Loss creeps up on you, it is not a case of waking up partially deaf one morning. It happens so gradually, you might not even be aware of it, until you start asking people to repeat themselves, or drop out of a conversation, because you cannot follow it.

[Ethilfrog]

I blame the noise in the Mail Centre, esp on the machinery.

Sounds credible to me. But did you have the radio blaring out overhead, over and above the machine noise? It isn't just machines that create noise pollution. I tried complaining once ... let's just say it wasn't worth it. Many of my colleagues have invested in ipods with those very expensive headphones that block out background noise.