postr/StutterDecember 16, 2025

Answering the phone at work is a nightmare. (Advice wanted)

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Content

Answering the phone at work is a nightmare. (Advice wanted) Hi all, I work front of house at a bakery part time while I'm in school, I had a moderate stutter for a really long time. However, I I finished speech therapy about a year ago now and have been doing a lot better since. Most customer service interactions are entirely fluent and when I am talking with friends and family my stutter is almost non-existent. When I'm on the phone, though, it's an absolute nightmare. I have a lot of trouble with the "Sh" sound at the start of the bakery's name, and I'm supposed to answer the phone with "[Bakery's Name] How can I help you?" I usually don't get to the second part, and I get flustered from how much trouble I have with the name that I stutter a lot more during the following conversation. I also on multiple occasions have had people laugh at me or just laugh, and once or twice I've had a customer mock me. I read that the ADA requires my job to provide accomodations, but I don't even know what that would entail. I also cannot hear the people on the phone very well all the time since our phones have poor audio quality, which gives me an even harder time. It's gotten to the point that I stutter when I hear our phones ring and I often will just ignore them, which I know is a bad way to deal with it. Any advice would be greatly appreciated, as otherwise I like this job, and want to keep it, but my hours are infrequent and I believe this is the reason.

Themes

Anticipation & AvoidanceEmotional ExperienceSocial & Relationships

Subthemes

Feared Words & NamesAvoidance & SubstitutionHiding & ConcealmentAnxiety & Social JudgmentListener Reactions

Codes (2)

ordering_service_encountertelephone_video