Stuttering at Work

Disclosing your stutter at work is HARD. I think almost everyone who stutters can relate to that. No matter how much or how little you stutter, no matter the type of a job you have…it’s simply just hard. I’ve blogged about stuttering in professional environments before and I’ve even blogged specifically about stuttering with colleagues. You can read that post here. But I think this topic deserves some more attention because it’s something that’s so scary and is still kind of taboo for a lot people. We discussed this in detail at one of my speech therapy sessions recently, and it’s the theme of this blog post by Dylan Levin from The American Institute for Stuttering (AIS).

3 Reasons Why I am Done Hiding from Stuttering at Work https://t.co/perrh6vHc6#speakfreelylivefearlessly #stutteringatwork #stuttering

— Stuttering Treatment (@StutteringTx) August 19, 2019

I reached out to Dylan and had a really nice conversation with him about stuttering at work. We also chatted about advertising, the AIS gala, and more! The latter topics I may share in a separate blog post later on. For now, I wanted to keep the focus solely on stuttering at work. Keep reading below for more! PS, the pictures in this blog post were taken at the Glenstone contemporary art museum in Potomac, MD. My best friend and I were lucky enough to get some tickets (they’re hard to come by!) and even though we aren’t exactly modern art people, we had ourselves a ball just exploring and trying to interpret the artwork. If you’re into modern art, I’d highly recommend going! And if you’re not…well, it’s something different to do haha!

The Work Environment

We spend more than 80% of our time at work during the week, which means we’re stuck in an environment that makes us feel self conscious about our stutter…for 80% of the week. UGH. The point I’m making is that work is a difficult place to feel confident about stuttering and there’s no way to avoid it. (Unless you pull a basic millennial move and quit your job to pursue your life passion… but otherwise, nope).

Related: Stuttering During Interviews

I talked to Dylan about how, without realizing it, I’d taken several steps back with stuttering at work. Even though more people have approached me about stuttering (don’t get me wrong, I’m very grateful for the opportunity to educate others about stuttering), I haven’t actually allowed myself to openly stutter as much. I’ve coiled back into my shell because…well I don’t actually know why. Maybe it’s partly because my job responsibilities have switched tremendously to a role that’s very customer-facing which involves lots of communication with external parties. Or, maybe there’s other factors that I can’t think of just yet. Who knows.

Dylan reminded me that it’s ok to be afraid to stutter at work. Speaking to internal team members is different and sometimes requires less formality than speaking with external parties that you don’t know that well. He talked about his struggle with both types of communication at work, which was a great reminder of the NSA’s motto – if you stutter you’re not alone.

The other day I went to a work meeting and stuttered while introducing myself. The recipient responded with “had to think about that for a sec, did ya?”. Instead of standing up for myself and telling him that I stuttered, I kept quiet and just laughed it off. The rest of the day I felt so ashamed for not taking that moment to assert myself and disclose my stutter. I thought to myself, here I am, blogging about stuttering positivity and openness all the time, but I can’t even take my own advice?! I’m such a fraud! BUT… after chatting with Dylan, I was reminded that no one’s perfect and it’s ok to be afraid.

Related Podcast: Women Who Stutter: Our Stories

Who’s in Your Box?

In Avoidance Reduction Therapy for Stuttering, we talk a lot about advertising and stuttering to people we’re comfortable with. It’s like having a select amount of people “in your box” that you’re able to do speech work with, talk about stuttering, and stutter without feeling ashamed. The goal is to slowly increase the size of your box by increasing the number of people you are comfortable stuttering to. Several of my fellow group members shared how it’s easiest for them when they have one to two people they can share their stutter struggles with, then slowly add one person at a time to their box.

I think this is a good approach. Rather than advertising to a large crowd at once (which works for some people), I think it’s way less intimidating to open up to one person at a time. Before I became comfortable with my stutter, I had no one in my box except for my immediate family. Now, I’m really excited to keep increasing the width, depth, and height everywhere I go!

Wrapping up

Simply put, stuttering can be hard sometimes and that’s okay. It’s okay to be an advocate for people who stutter even if you’re afraid of stuttering at work. It’s okay to be afraid to advertise your stutter. And, it’s okay to accept your stutter and work with it instead of against it.

It was really great to chat with Dylan, and he said he’s always open to making new connections in the stuttering community. You can connect with him on LinkedIn, and check out his short blog post on AIS here. And as always, check out the National Stuttering Association website for more stuttering resources. The American Institute for Stuttering is another great stuttering resource. Thanks for reading this super long post! (I’m always writing long posts these days on stuttering topics, I guess that’s a good thing? haha!)