I had another sensory problem at work today: I was taking part in a video-conference meeting and had to leave because I couldn’t follow the spoken words of a participant from the US.
I found that I was concentrating so hard on recognising each word I couldn’t work out the overall meaning of what he was saying. The effort was tiring: after about 5 minutes I couldn’t handle any more and had to leave.
It left me shaking and I had to go for a walk outside to calm myself. I tried to make sense of why I now have such problems to a much greater degree than I ever used to, but ultimately failed: I just don’t have the answer.
For the time being I think I’ll simply have to avoid such meetings. I’m due to see somebody next week for an assessment of my working environment, and perhaps between us we can arrive either at some solution or an accommodation that mitigates my sensory problems.
My Autistic Dance 
I struggle with the same problem, I’m just picking up chunks of words here and there but I can’t process them fast enough to understand what they mean, and everyone just keeps moving on. I wish I have an answer. Will be looking forward to hear how your assessment goes. Best wishes.
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Hi! Yeah, video conferences can be really tough, I struggle with them as well.
Also, the thing about “concentrating so hard on recognising each word I couldn’t work out the overall meaning of what he was saying” that is me with every foreign language 😀 So annoying. I can read many languages just fine, but when they start talking, I get this. But this was US, so technically shouldn’t be much of a problem for you.
A couple of things I’m thinking about specifically video conference related:
-was there visual information to follow, and did that hinder or help? For me it helps when there is relevant information (kanban board, user stories), because it provides more context and more words for me to read. I struggle with processing information purely through my ears. However, if there are faces on screen, long texts, or the person presenting also has other programs on (notifications of mails coming in for instance), it can be really distracting.
-did people have thick accents? I worked with a company that had many developers from many different countries with different accents in their English (or Dunglish 😦 ), and it was really difficult to follow.
-were you wearing headphones that block out (most of) the rest of your environment?
-was there a lot of noise from everyone having their mic open?
-stress. I find it more difficult to deal with a video conference when I am stressed out, or there’s a generally stressed attitude everywhere, or a lot hinges on this call.
-how was the meeting run? Did people all talk, or was it well centralized?
I hope this can help you pin point some problem. But even better: it sounds great that someone it coming to assess your work environment! That should come up with interesting insights.
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