How has it affected your working life?
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How has it affected your working life? Here's my working life cliff notes.. I think it turned into a rant. TL:DR - My work life has been affected by my stutter, for the worse. Each job it's impacted me. It sucks. First job: Grocery store, union maintenance worker. Passed up over a dozen times for promotion. I finally find out why from an evening manager, who doesn't directly to the promotions, that's for the general manager to decide. Ended up being my stammer that blocked my promotion due to all available positions being customer facing. Second job: Instant oil change, general crew worker. Each of the crew members work 50% in the pit, and 50% above during their shifts. No one is stuck in the pit 100% of the time. Except for me. I ask why this is the case, the manager says "I notice you have a stammer, and we need someone who can speak clearly on top side". Third job: Target, backroom employee. I worked there for 5 years, finally there's a Level 2 Supervisor position opening in the backroom. I go for it, and everyone expects me to succeed based on my experience. HR Executive interviews me for the position. I get nervous, start stammering, she mimics me and laughs. After a few minutes you could tell on her face that she just wanted to be "done with it". Eventually I find out from another HR employee that the reason I wasn't picked was because of my "communication issue". I asked to clarify that response, and he said "your stutter". Fourth job: Engineering firm, electrical design engineer. I worked there for a year after college until the day I thought I was going to actually get promoted for the first time in my life. I worked my butt off, long hours, worked very hard. I was brought into a corner office by the VP. He sits me down and tells me about this awesome opportunity that opened up recently. I got excited. He tells me the position is as a "CAD Drafter". Sounds nice right? Except at an engineering firm the seniority goes like this.. CAD Drafter -> Design Engineer -> Professional Engineer. I asked why, he said "Well, we noticed you have a stammer" and he said "We'd like someone who is clearly spoken to speak with our architectural clients". Long story short, I was demoted. Fifth job: Power grid development company, IT analyst. After the first week I was brought into my manager's office and he sits me down. "Why didn't you tell me you had a stammer" as he looked annoyed. I asked why? He says "Well, I'd like my people to be able to speak clearly when they're helping solve computer issues". I responded with "I mentioned it at my interview". He face palms. I'm demoted to an IT Coordinator role, no longer client facing. In short, I turned into a bookkeeper for software licenses, hardware, and ticket queue distribution. Has anyone else experienced a giant trainwreck like me in the working world?