The 7-step action plan for improving your hearing in the workplace

The participants were fitted with specially moulded hearing plugs that partially blocked their ability to hear, before being put in everyday office situations to see how it impacted their ability to interact with others.

With the plugs blocking their ears, they were tested to see just how much of what was being said to them in office conversations they could make out.

The experiment was carried out as part of Hidden Hearing’s Love Your Ears campaign to raise awareness of hearing issues in the workplace.

Struggling to hear

Medical broadcaster and GP Dr Hilary Jones was on set to witness the filmed social experiment in action.

He said: “Not being able to hear well in the office can dramatically impact the way you interact with others. It can affect your confidence and increase a sense of anxiety that then prevents you from going for that promotion and developing your career.

“This experiment showed how affected workers not only miss important details, their emotional health and behaviour can be negatively impacted, too.

“Missing out on parts of the conversation made the volunteers feel insecure and they were surprised to notice that, as a result, they started to withdraw from taking part in conversations that were happening around them.”

The test comes as research found one in five workers struggle to hear everything said in important meetings and even believe their hearing problems have held them back at work.

Seeking professional help

A study of 2,000 employees found background noise (38 per cent), people mumbling (36 per cent) or speaking in a quiet voice (33 per cent) were a reason people struggled to make out what their colleagues were saying in meetings.

But just 41 per cent would be prepared to flag their difficulties during the meeting, with 40 per cent of those keeping it to themselves worried people would think they weren’t listening.

While 37 per cent don’t want to seem rude and 29 per cent would simply be too embarrassed to ask someone to repeat themselves.

Struggling to keep up with conversations in work meetings made 28 per cent feel confused, with others admitting to feeling concerned (23 per cent), worried (20 per cent), shy (16 per cent) and even annoyed (17 per cent).

It also emerged that despite 21 per cent of those polled fearing their hearing difficulties have held them back at work, only 35 per cent have had things checked by a hearing or medical professional.

And 22 per cent said they either already have or think they may have hearing loss.