The hidden damage desk jobs are doing to our ears
We may be damaging our hearing at work without even realizing it, experts say.
In manual jobs like construction or manufacturing, a loud environment is par for the course. That means there are more protections in place for these workers’ ears, with employers legally required to provide hearing protectants if exposed to sounds over 85 decibels for eight hours.
But people in desk jobs are also at risk, and there are no such protections.
Sure, an office environment itself isn’t as loud as a factory or construction site, but some people wear their headphones for their entire eight-hour workday, which could lead to hearing damage in the long term, experts say. The World Health Organization recommends listening through headphones for a maximum of one hour per day.
People who work from home, or a third space like a cafe or coworking space, may be particularly at risk, given it’s common in those spaces to wear headphones to drown out other noise or distractions.
Charlene Espie is one of those people who has a growing concern for her hearing health. “It’s always in my ears, blasting music – I can’t live without Spotify,” said Espie, founder of Tartan Social, a social media marketing agency. “I’m always getting that ‘volume too high’ warning on my phone and I’m like ‘ah, whatever, it’s fine.’”
She’s only 40 years old but is beginning to notice her hearing decline and has booked her first appointment with an audiologist. “You go through life just doing your thing until you’re stopped in your tracks and need to make a change,” said Espie. “It’s having that intention to make me think twice and take the breaks and not leave my headphones on. It’s a force of habit now, but I need to try to stop.”
But that can be a difficult task, especially when you’re not sure how important it is to focus on your hearing health.
Employers leave hearing health out of the picture
While most employers boast health benefits including vision and dental, they almost always leave hearing out of the picture. According to the Royal National Institute for Deaf People (RNID) around 1 in 2 adults have their eyes and teeth checked, while only 1 in 20 (6%) have their hearing checked.
“What we often forget to realize is that headphones create noisy workplaces, even in those silent offices, where we wear headphones to cut out the sound or to commute,” said Amanda Philpott, hearing health expert and co-founder and CEO of Eargym.
It’s not something that only older populations need to worry about either. Espie falls in the group of millennials who will experience more hearing loss than their parents. According to a study from BMJ, it’s predicted that 1 billion younger people will sustain hearing loss. Other research indicates that hearing loss is 30% higher than 20 years ago.
Blake Cadwell, co-founder of Soundly, says the main reason for that is the younger generation’s use of headphones. Headphone makers are not regulated in terms of volume output, which means they can make it as loud as they want. And while many are being responsible, like Apple which sends a notification when noise in your environment reaches a level that might affect your hearing, it might not necessarily be enough.
And hearing loss impacts productivity too.
“When we start to struggle to hear, we need to pay more attention, and the cognitive load, the listening effort, is so significant that it exhausts us,” said Philpott. “So we start to want to withdraw from those conversations or withdraw from that engagement. We become more isolated and contribute less.”
In its worst cases, it could lead to someone leaving the workforce early altogether, creating an economic impact. “We don’t recognize that a lot of our stress and pain at work is due to the fact that we are in meetings where we are in environments where we’re really struggling to hear,” said Philpott.
Quick tips for concerned workers
One of the first steps is doing a check to see how your hearing currently is. While a doctor is best for that, online tests can give you an indicator of what the doctor might say. Eargym offers a quick test that tells you what your hearing age is, and Soundly has one as well that tests both ears.
And whether your hearing is stellar or worse than you hoped, it’s best to start taking measures to prevent future hearing loss.
A good rule of thumb is to not listen to anything over 85 decibels, and even that is pushing it. According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, sounds above 70 decibels over a prolonged period of time may start to damage your hearing.
There’s also the 60/60 rule which states that your volume shouldn’t be over 60% and that every 60 minutes you should take a break.
“Certainly five to 10 minutes or enough time to give your ears a rest,” said Philpott. “Go for a walk, make a cup of coffee, take your headphones off for a bit and allow your ears to rest. It’s not quick on and off. It’s giving them a proper chance to recover.”
Also, use noise-canceling headphones over a regular pair.
“It’s not because it protects you from the outside world as much, but because it protects you from not having to turn up your internal volume to a point that’s unhealthy,” said Cadwell.
Say you’re in a coffee shop on a Zoom call. You might need to set your headphones to 90 decibels to just hear the conversation over the background noise. If you have noise-canceling headphones, that is not necessary. Cadwell explains that noise-canceling headphones work by creating a counteractive wave to the outside sound, which can block or stop someone from hearing other noise.
“It’s not unlike mental health or other things where a lot of little decisions are what add up to taking care of hearing health, like okay I’m going to turn it down a little bit or I’m going to take 15-minute breaks,” said Cadwell. “It doesn’t always feel so loud. Your brain is not a great guide on what is allowed and what is not allowed and I think that’s really challenging.”