Most people don’t realise that their difficulties recognising others are due to a specific condition until later life, so it’s not something they will have considered when choosing a job or career. This means that people may be in jobs where they struggle with some aspects of their role on a daily basis without understanding the reason for their difficulties. The situation is made more difficult by the fact that employers are unlikely to be aware of face blindness, and so may have difficulty in understanding its impact and finding effective ways to support such employees in their work.
If face blind people blank colleagues or are slow to engage with others, they can be seen as rude or unsociable, but to greet someone or join a discussion you first need to establish who you’re speaking to. With face blindness this takes far more time than automatic recognition and by then the moment may have passed or the conversation moved on.
Public-facing roles or fast moving situations, may be particularly difficult. Although many people with prosopagnosia will have found their own strategies for recognising people this tends to require a lot of conscious effort and can be quite tiring. It’s not easy living in a world full of strangers!
An academic research paper (2007) Psychosocial consequences of developmental prosopagnosia: A problem of recognition investigating the psychosocial impact in adults linked prosopagnosia with both social anxiety and depression, and noted that the condition could restrict an individual’s employment opportunities. The authors cited a need for greater awareness of prosopagnosia to counter this experience.
Discussions with bosses and colleagues may help to minimise misunderstandings enable support systems to be put in place, but some people will chose to keep quiet about their difficulty recognising people for fear of being seen as incapable of fulfilling a particular role or due concerns about the impact this could have on their career development.
What Can Help
Practical Help – Smaller teams or groups of people will usually be easier for someone with face blindness. An entry-phone system, or appointments diary can identify who’s arriving. At larger meetings clear name badges can help, along with a list of attendees and the practice of introducing people in a discussion group.
If colleagues are aware of the difficulties, then they can begin to gain an understanding of the situation rather than feeling slighted if their colleague does not greet them or recognise them, particularly out of context. Colleagues may also be happy to offer help in everyday situations or at meetings.
Coping Strategies – Individuals with prosopagnosia are likely to be best-placed to tell employers what is most helpful for them. They are likely to have developed their own strategies for identifying others, and may be quite adept at managing social and work situations.
Conversely, some people with face blindness may have avoided social contact, and may need to be supported in things that come naturally to others, such as greeting people and maintaining good eye contact.
Rights, Advice & Information
Employers have a duty to make reasonable adjustments to the workplace and offer support to individuals with impairments which have a substantial and long-term effect on an individual’s daily life. While this reflects the definition of disability used by the UK’s 2010 Equality Act, it has yet to be established through case law for face blindness.
As managers and HR staff become more aware of face blindness, they can identify those who may be affected by the condition and start to work together with employees to find positive solutions to some of the challenges that face blindness may present for a particular job or role.
Employment Factsheet
The Face Blind UK Factsheet: Face Blindness & Employment will give employers and colleagues a quick overview of prosopagnosia and the adjustments that can be made at work.
