Part II: Evaluation of professional functioning 73 Introduction Hearing loss is a prevalent health problem and can severely affect the well-being and work functioning of employees (Danermark & Gellerstedt, 2004). It causes more effort and concentration to be required to perform auditory job tasks, such as communicating with colleagues or responding to auditory warning signals (Tufts et al., 2009). Sustained listening under difficult conditions – such as noisy workplaces or workplaces with reverberation – can be demanding and fatiguing (Holman et al., 2019; Hornsby et al., 2016). Compared to normally-hearing employees, those with hearing loss experience more intense fatigue, and/or require a longer period to recuperate from work-induced fatigue (Holman et al., 2021a; Nachtegaal et al., 2012; Nachtegaal et al., 2009). In other words; their Need For Recovery (NFR) after work is generally higher. NFR is not only an indicator of work-induced fatigue, but also a predictor of stress, subjective health complaints, and sickness leave (De Croon et al., 2003; Sluiter et al., 2003). Assessing the NFR can therefore be used to screen for employees at risk for occupational diseases (Broersen et al., 2004). Employees with hearing loss are more likely to have reduced work productivity, to take more sickness leave, to become unemployed, and to take earlier retirement (Danermark &Gellerstedt, 2004; Helvik et al., 2013; Mohr et al., 2000; Nachtegaal et al., 2012; Shan et al., 2020). Monitoring the NFR of employees with hearing loss may therefore be valuable to identify employees at risk for occupational diseases. Monitoring can also be used to evaluate the effects of interventions that aim to reduce hearing complaints in work situations and to improve work participation in individuals with hearing loss. Recently, there has been an increasing interest in the NFR of employees with hearing loss. In our previous study (Van der Hoek-Snieders et al., 2020), NFR and the underlying relationships with several hearing-related, work-related, and personal factors was assessed in 294 employees with hearing loss. A model was proposed of factors influencing the NFR in this population (Figure 1).
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