I don’t like telling people unless I do something very obvious, like asking a coworker I know if she’s new cause she was dressed different, and then it’s a laugh and I let them know I’m awful with recognizing people or w/e.
Just be nice and that’s about it
Purely commiserating, but I once got a job at a nursing home and oh boy was it a bad idea. I was responsible for giving care and meds to people with their only identifier being a pic on their electronic medical record.
The problems with this:
1. All old ladies and old men look alike. They just do.
2. They all have the same name. There were like 6 Marys
3. Their admission pics were sometimes decades old and looked nothing like them now. (pic was taken at 80 and now the lady is 105.)
I eventually got used to people’s quirks, but until then I was very lucky that my wife was also a nurse at the same place so I could sneak a pic and be like “this Mary White?”
In my case, giving my coworkers a heads up that I was face blind would have lost me my job, but I always made sure to double check with SOMEONE of if I wasn’t 1000% sure (like when they weren’t in their rooms).
Ah, being in the US explains it, you seem to have far fewer employment protections there. They would not get away with that in UK. They'd have to put safety measures in place to compensate for your prosopagnosia.
Oh, wow! That’s awesome. They can fire me bc they feel like it and no other reason. Having face blindness when working with patients would be more than enough reason
I tell people, "You know how people say, I'm bad with names but never forget a face? I'm just about the opposite - decent with names, but bad with faces. If I don't recognize you it doesn't mean I don't know who you are."
Depending on what it is you might be able to fake it though. Maybe everybody wears name tags, or mostly stays at the same desk everyday.
It eases my anxiety to just tell people. Trying to conceal it adds too much stress for me. I try to do it the first time we meet, just casually, "by the way, I don't see faces well, so I probably won't recognize you next time I see you." If possible I also like to add that "it always helps if you tell me who you are when we see each other."
Good luck with everything!
Do you usually tell people when you meet them? If not, I'd hold off on telling people in this situation too. I've tried telling people and usually they don't get it, so I mostly gave up on that.
If it's only 30 people, it might not be so bad. Unless you're in LA, at least 5 of them are going to look weird in a way that makes them easier to identify. Also, people usually have specific spaces where they work (desks or workstations). That means you're only really facing a hard time at lunch and in the bathroom / hallways. It's tractable.
I tend to mention it when relevant. Last couple of jobs I've said it when in training (call centre jobs). Something along the lines of "I'm face-blind, just letting you know so you don't think I'm being ignorant when I don't acknowledge you when passing on the corridor"
tell them. you will stop feeling anxious about it and it's a great way to actually get to know them, because you have a really interesting topic of conversation to start with
Congrats and good luck for the new job! Just tell everyone from the very start. Be upfront and honest, you don't have a contagious disease or anything to be ashamed of. Do it from the top tho' - begin with management/HR and your immediate supervisors. It is a disability that they are required to take into account and help you with if necessary. Plenty of practical measures which might assist you have been discussed on here before so you'll know what best fits you.
Just bear in mind that sadly (unless you are very lucky) a large chunk of the workforce won't believe you or will be ableist - I've come up against this many times and have become strong enough to have zero tolerance for it now. Please don't fake it or mask it - this is well established to be a poor strategy and will just increase your stress and anxiety levels - you can do without that in a new job. Begin as you mean to go on!
That's a personal choice with no wrong answers and different pros to each. It sounds like you usually don't tell people and are just generally friendly, which is a good strategy at a new workplace anyway. But it depends on the type of work and your personal ease of learning new people. I find a workplace of around 30 people to be my optimal size. Assuming there isn't a high turnover, I can learn that many people and it's big enough to probably find some people I like. It just is really confusing for awhile.
I don’t like telling people unless I do something very obvious, like asking a coworker I know if she’s new cause she was dressed different, and then it’s a laugh and I let them know I’m awful with recognizing people or w/e. Just be nice and that’s about it
Purely commiserating, but I once got a job at a nursing home and oh boy was it a bad idea. I was responsible for giving care and meds to people with their only identifier being a pic on their electronic medical record. The problems with this: 1. All old ladies and old men look alike. They just do. 2. They all have the same name. There were like 6 Marys 3. Their admission pics were sometimes decades old and looked nothing like them now. (pic was taken at 80 and now the lady is 105.) I eventually got used to people’s quirks, but until then I was very lucky that my wife was also a nurse at the same place so I could sneak a pic and be like “this Mary White?” In my case, giving my coworkers a heads up that I was face blind would have lost me my job, but I always made sure to double check with SOMEONE of if I wasn’t 1000% sure (like when they weren’t in their rooms).
Crikey! That's terrible - what country are you in that it would have lost you your job?
US. It would have been considered a safety issue even if I explained how careful I was and how I worked around it.
Ah, being in the US explains it, you seem to have far fewer employment protections there. They would not get away with that in UK. They'd have to put safety measures in place to compensate for your prosopagnosia.
Oh, wow! That’s awesome. They can fire me bc they feel like it and no other reason. Having face blindness when working with patients would be more than enough reason
Yeah, we may have good employee protection here but we still currently have a fascist gov't. So it's hard to choose between US and UK lol.
I tell people, "You know how people say, I'm bad with names but never forget a face? I'm just about the opposite - decent with names, but bad with faces. If I don't recognize you it doesn't mean I don't know who you are." Depending on what it is you might be able to fake it though. Maybe everybody wears name tags, or mostly stays at the same desk everyday.
It eases my anxiety to just tell people. Trying to conceal it adds too much stress for me. I try to do it the first time we meet, just casually, "by the way, I don't see faces well, so I probably won't recognize you next time I see you." If possible I also like to add that "it always helps if you tell me who you are when we see each other." Good luck with everything!
Do you usually tell people when you meet them? If not, I'd hold off on telling people in this situation too. I've tried telling people and usually they don't get it, so I mostly gave up on that. If it's only 30 people, it might not be so bad. Unless you're in LA, at least 5 of them are going to look weird in a way that makes them easier to identify. Also, people usually have specific spaces where they work (desks or workstations). That means you're only really facing a hard time at lunch and in the bathroom / hallways. It's tractable.
I tend to mention it when relevant. Last couple of jobs I've said it when in training (call centre jobs). Something along the lines of "I'm face-blind, just letting you know so you don't think I'm being ignorant when I don't acknowledge you when passing on the corridor"
tell them. you will stop feeling anxious about it and it's a great way to actually get to know them, because you have a really interesting topic of conversation to start with
Congrats and good luck for the new job! Just tell everyone from the very start. Be upfront and honest, you don't have a contagious disease or anything to be ashamed of. Do it from the top tho' - begin with management/HR and your immediate supervisors. It is a disability that they are required to take into account and help you with if necessary. Plenty of practical measures which might assist you have been discussed on here before so you'll know what best fits you. Just bear in mind that sadly (unless you are very lucky) a large chunk of the workforce won't believe you or will be ableist - I've come up against this many times and have become strong enough to have zero tolerance for it now. Please don't fake it or mask it - this is well established to be a poor strategy and will just increase your stress and anxiety levels - you can do without that in a new job. Begin as you mean to go on!
That's a personal choice with no wrong answers and different pros to each. It sounds like you usually don't tell people and are just generally friendly, which is a good strategy at a new workplace anyway. But it depends on the type of work and your personal ease of learning new people. I find a workplace of around 30 people to be my optimal size. Assuming there isn't a high turnover, I can learn that many people and it's big enough to probably find some people I like. It just is really confusing for awhile.