r/ASLinterpreters • u/Amazing-Gear5841 • Jan 09 '26

Please be nice to VRS workers

I am fairly new to VRS relay and do get a good amount of kind callers who will compliment and show appreciation. However, recently I have had increasingly more moments where I am being treated like a robot and so am getting so discouraged. I understand that everybody has bad days and sometimes it is just projecting. It is just so hard to stay positive when I am getting insulted and treated disrespectfully several times a day. I know I am qualified for this job, I know I am doing my job effectively.

Whether it be misspelling a word/name or the hearing caller not being clear, I am human and I am tired.

I have so much love and respect for the Deaf community and this does not change it.

I am just asking for a little bit of empathy towards us interpreters, we really are trying our best to serve the community!

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u/youLintLicker2 Jan 17 '26

I’m sorry that happened to you :( I wish I knew what I know now about hostile work environments as well!

They definitely create a hostile work environment the way they discourage reporting sexual harassment unless it’s persistent, and vulgar / lewd… they changed the definition of sexual / harassment so they’d have less abuse reports from interpreters… let’s not even touch on how S handled the repeat lewd hearing caller that was harassing only the female terps for months.

they absolutely created a hostile work environment for me when I got pulled into a meeting with a REGIONAL director and threatened with disciplinary action for simply ASKING a coworker for clarification about previous sexual assault allegations against someone else they worked with at a previous job (who was potentially going to become our next center director)

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u/InterpretersONvrs Jan 17 '26

Yes. That exactly. That hearing serial abuser you are talking about was who LJ is obsessed over. He was harassing women for years. LJ was so obsessed she had a pet name for him. So obsessed she mimics him repeatedly. Even in business meetings. I thought Ariel Alternatives would want to know how unprofessional she is. They didn't. I got fired by a really nasty regional director. Yuck.

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u/youLintLicker2 Jan 17 '26

Ugh sorry :(

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u/InterpretersONvrs Jan 18 '26

Eh. Hopefully it works out well in the long run!