Occupational Health Work Place Adjustments for Tinnitus

Hi All,

There is a lot of information about sound exposure in the workplace (for England @ HSE but there is not a lot of information about adjustments that could be made for tinnitus.

With that in mind I was wondering if any of you have made any successful adjustments at work either in conjunction with Occupational Health or on your own? I use a Jawbone headset, take regular breaks and use speaker phones.

Would be great to hear of any adjustments you have made to make it easier to work with your tinnitus.

Many thanks.

 

Hey, in 2019 when I was really struggling and had to take a few days off sick when I was at my worst, I was sent to occupational health when I returned. I found the doctor I spoke to extremely nice and understanding about tinnitus.

My job was office based (auditor) so the main adjustments they suggested were:

- having my own office if possible so I didn’t have to deal with the noise of the office - this wasn’t possible as our office was open plan so instead I was given a fixed desk in the quietest part of the office instead of having to hot desk and worry about which desk I’d sit at each day
- being able to work from home on my worst days (at the time, I was working in the office or at a client 99% of the time so this was a significant adjustment)
- amending client scheduling to avoid me having to go to London clients for the time being as I found the noise of London and the busy trains, tube etc really difficult to deal with and instead scheduling me on clients that I could drive to

I am in a new job now and I haven’t returned to occupational health but my manager knows about my tinnitus. Luckily I work from home 4 days a week now so I don’t really need any adjustments.