Stammering in the workplace

At the age of sixteen I decided to leave school, this greatly annoyed my parents who had hoped that I would go on to attend university. The reason I left school was because of the fact that I had a stammer and had had enough of people laughing at me.

 

I struggled to cope with the seemingly constant mickey taking from the other people in the class. These people were making my life hell and I could not wait to get away from them.

 

I then had to try and find a job, not just any job but a job where I would not be required to talk too much. I had no real idea of what types of work I wanted to do and in truth did not really care so long as I was happy and stammer free.

 

Ideally, I wanted a position where I would be able to work on my own as I never seemed to stammer when talking to myself. These type of roles are not easy to find however.

 

The stammer stopped me from applying for so many vacancies, in fact there were hardly any jobs that did appeal to me.

 

 

Attending interviews was particularly difficult and I have to admit that I stammered in each and every one of them. I found that I would stammer far more when I was under pressure and this was how I felt at these interviews.

 

Eventually after about six months, I was successful in gaining employment, I am sure the fact that I had a stammering problem made this period longer than it would have been had I been fluent.

 

The position was working for an insurance company in an administration role. It was the perfect starting point as I was not required to answer the phone or make any phone calls. This was exactly what I was looking for of course.

 

The work itself created me few problems but it was the people who I worked with whom I found it hard to cope with. I had expected people at work to be far more mature than the people I used to mix with at school, but I was very much mistaken.

 

I still received abuse from a number of people who at times would even pretend that they had a stammer.

 

This speech impediment turned the first few years of my career into one big struggle. I did meet some very nice and caring people in that time as well as the nasty ones. Life was not all bad.