anyone do jobs that involve communication?

[scott123]

hi guys i have not posted for a while but i have being thinking and i am curious to know if anyone here does jobs that involve lots of communicaiton. by this i mean working in retail e.g. shops / bars / pubs / clubs, anything like that. if so how well do you cope with your stutter whilst working?

i myself work in a nightclub and i class my stutter as maybe inbetween mild and severe but when im working it isnt normally as bad as usual and i actually quite enjoy serving customers and talking to them.

from the above my stutter might seem like nothing compared to other peoples on here but i am very self concious about it and i have all the associated anxieties because of it and it is very badly aggrevated when im nervous to the point of a severe stutter. :mad:


thanks

[Lenny]

i had a job that required a lot of speaking and I just tried to understand everything about the job, keep on top of things, really try hard and do more than was expected of me, really work hard and know my job inside out and that made me so much more confident in that situation that I hardly stuttered at all.

and it carried somewhat to other situations but at least in that one i felt fine, really extend yourself..

[dream431ca]

I have to talk on a cell phone. Sometimes I stutter, sometimes I don't. I usually just calm down a bit and my stuttering seems to diminish a little.

[jamesm]

good point Lenny, completely agree with you.
I've had jobs in the past where I answered phones (pizza hut) where I stuttered a lot on the phone, but I was younger and my speech has greatly improved since then.
I also worked the drive through at a coffee shop, wearing a headset, in which I stuttered a little in the beginning, but gradually became really fluent. I think maybe because I could sort of hear my voice echo, (almost like a speech easy). who knows?

I have a job now where I talk on a daily basis, i consider myself extremely talented at being covert. Mostly i speak just on the phone to different departments of the company I work with. When I first started this job I was in the field which literally meant I had to knock on thousands of doors and talk to people, it was really intimidating at first, but I got into the routine of saying the same "greeting" ex.(Hi, I'm working with.....We are here today to.... etc.) My stuttering in general really improved. I still stuttered from time to time, most people (some actually told me) think I am just nervous, which doesn't bother me because they could never understand "stuttering", you know? I did my job, got paid, bonuses, raises, vacations, etc. Can't complain :)

[numba0]

hey dream431ca do you live in edmonton???

[Tennismaster]

I have been working in a retail pharmacy for the past 10 months. At first, I was terrified about going to work, and answering the phone almost made me want to quit. But I have become more comfortable with speaking with people and for the most part, people are very understanding. When I do stutter, I always make sure to maintain eye contact, which shows I am still in control. For a while, I always thought people were kind of suspicious when I would tell them something, and block while saying it. And on occasion, I have a really bad block where I make a complete fool of myself. I used to let it bug me, but now I just stand back and laugh at myself. It really helps cure any hurt feelings. At the end of the day, I just let my dream of becoming a pharmacist inspire me to keep working on my speech, and to keep believing one day I will become the best pharmacist I can be, without letting stuttering hold me back. Sometimes I wonder why I chose a profession involving so much talking. I guess it's facing the challenge that brings out the best in us.