Stuttering at Work

Results of a survey by Professor Marshall Rice of the Schulich School of Business at York University, Toronto, indicate that more than half of stutterers believe their stuttering has been an obstacle in their employment. Furthermore,

. . . 42 percent felt a job interview was "cut short." Fourteen percent said an employer told them directly that they would not be hired for a position because of their stuttering.

Shortened interviews? Yeah, that's definitely happened to me. I'm pretty close to being among the fourteen percent, as well. I like to give people the benefit of the doubt, though, so perhaps the rejection letter I received from an employer accusing me of lacking "honesty and forthrightness" for not having specifically told her that I stuttered meant that my failure to state the obvious, not the stuttering itself, cost me the job.

I truly believe that when I go into an interview, or most any other situation, I have an obligation to make my listeners feel as comfortable as possible and to educate them about my speech when necessary and appropriate. I also know that it is incredibly difficult to know just how to carry out those obligations during a job interview. I've tried numerous techniques, and they all failed at one time or another.

Before I was to graduate with my undergrad degree, I approached a professor who frequently sat on interview panels and asked his opinion about how I should deal with my stuttering, since it would no doubt show itself during an interview. Should I raise the issue to put the interviewers at ease, or should I just let them figure it out? He thought about it for a while and got back to me the next day. His suggestion: mention it if I was comfortable doing so.

So I did. During the first interview, I was frank and told the employer that, as he had most certainly noticed, I did stutter, and that, as it should be clear from my transcript, my student teaching evaluations and my letters of reference, I had never allowed my speech to interfere with my work. The employer looked me square in the eye and said, "Lady, you need to lower your paranoia level."

That went well, now, didn't it?

In my second interview, once I mentioned my stutter, the employer refused to look me in the eye at all.

Oh, brother.

In my third interview, I was frank about my speech, and then promptly and rudely was told that I was not allowed to talk about it because of the ADA. The interview ended shortly thereafter.

What the . . . ?

So for my fourth interview, in an effort to avoid "breaking the law," scaring people, or being "paranoid," I changed my game plan. That's when I just stuttered my way through without mentioning it . . . and received the "honesty and forthrightness" letter.

ARGH!

The truth of the matter, though, is that I eventually got the kind of job I really wanted: a job teaching at a residential school for the deaf. I can't remember now what was said about my stuttering in that interview, but I know for a fact that the employer was much more interested in how I signed than in how I spoke. (Would you believe it was the only interview in which signing was even a component? But that's another post for another day.)

As for me, once I was employed (in my first teaching job and my subsequent one), I don't think I was overlooked or underestimated because of my stuttering. I'm one of the lucky ones, though. I have a feeling there are many less forgiving professions than the field of special education.