Deaf Trader Joe's employee finds a new way to communicate with customers
Grocery store workers have been working endlessly during the global pandemic. It can be extremely stressful working throughout this sensitive time. All of humanity has a little dose of fear inside of them making customers a bit on edge. This Trader Joes employee Matthew Simmons has especially felt a bit defeated during COVID-19.
Simmons is completely deaf and is well known at his Vancouver Washington store.
Usually, Simmons relies on his ability to read lips in order to help customers. But in this socially distanced world, we live in now, that wasn’t going to be an option.
Most customers wearing masks has made it extremely difficult for Simmons to help customers.
It even made it difficult for him to communicate with his co-workers since most employees where their masks too. Simmons even told TODAY Food,
“Some of the times, customers didn’t want to lower down their masks and shook their heads ‘no’ and walked away from me. It made me upset because I couldn’t help and left me feeling defeated.”
This roadblock gave Simmons a heap of anxiety not knowing how to help his customers.
It makes it very difficult if not impossible for deaf people to read facial expressions through a mask. Any deaf person who relies on their lip-reading skills now has a new obstacle to overcome. If people can’t communicate in sign language with Simmons while wearing a mask there has to be a new way for him to help customers.
That’s when his boss Alexandria Baker had an idea and wrote one of his Trader Joes t-shirts.
The front read “Deaf I Read Lips” and on the back was “Deaf Please Tap Me On The Shoulder For Help”. That astounding idea was a turning point for Simmons and made is much easier for him to help people. His management even let him write on the plexiglass “Hi My Name Is Matthew I Am Deaf and I Read Lips”.
Simmon’s management team also provided him with a whiteboard so people could write down their questions!
Customers were happy to communicate with Simmons someone even wrote
“It must be hard with everyone wearing masks! Thank you for your help.”
Matthew works part-time at the local Trader Joes and is a full-time teacher assistant at The Washington State School for the Deaf. Since schools have been closed for the rest of the school year Matthew continues to work at Trader Joes during the COVID-19.
With his supportive Trader Joe’s team, it has made working a much calmer environment during these hard times.
It’s wonderful to know Simmons has such a positive spirit. The kindness of his management staff is truly inspiring to everyone. Teamwork is important to succeed and there’s no denying the endless support Simmons has from his staff. Even during these tremendously difficult times, there are still rays of hope all throughout humanity. We’re so happy to know Simmons is working with a smile even on the cloudy days.
Thank you, Simmons and his Trader Joes team for all of your hard work!
https://www.facebook.com/Matthew.A.Simmons/posts/10157332430588022
Please SHARE this with your friends and family.
Source: TODAY, KGW, Matthew Simmons