In all these instances, emotional labor served (legitimately or not) identifiable emotional needs. That's not true at Pret. Fast-food service is not one of the caring professions. The only imperatives typically addressed in a Pret shop are hunger and thirst.People spend money based on feelings. Give them a good feeling about your business and you have a much better chance of getting repeat business. This isn't the same as prostitution; I really don't believe it's too much to ask that your employees are friendly.
Emotional labor is not itself new. Prostitutes have faked orgasms for millennia.Really? They're gonna go there?
Yes, you damn well better impress the customers like the boss says. That's why they call it the service industry.There's a difference between being expected to be generally pleasant and accommodating and this forced "If I don't smile hard enough to hurt the corners of my mouth I'm going to get written up" ebullience. See also: the "Pieces of Flair" Office Space subplot.
Coldstone Creamery has some good ice cream, and I'm not sure what's so monstrous about asking employees to sing.The Aziz Ansari quote from above bears repeating: "FIVE people are singing & dancing for A DOLLAR! That’s 20 cents a person! If you saw a homeless dude outside of Cold Stone & you’re like, “Hey man, I’ll give you 20 cents to sing some songs about Cold Stone.” He'd go, “Hey man! Go fuck yourself! That’s degrading!”"
In the three decades since Hochschild published The Managed Heart, the emotional economy has spread like a noxious weed to dry cleaners, nail salons, even computer-repair shops. ... Back when she wrote her book, Hochschild estimated that about one-third of all jobs entailed "substantial demands for emotional labor." Today, she figures it's more like half. This is, among other things, terrible news for men, who (unlike women) are not taught from birth how to make other people happy. Perhaps that explains why men are losing ground in the service economy.posted by John Cohen at 4:45 PM on February 1 [6 favorites]
And that, in turn, is why it is akin to wanting your soul; it's not enough for you to perform a task that needs to be done, you have to think and feel a certain way as well as serve sandwiches.Yes... I don't think anybody is saying it's unreasonable to ask fast food employees (or service employees in general) to be pleasant, courteous, et cetera. I worked as a movie theater usher for a couple of years. As minimum wage service jobs go, it was pretty good because *most* people are in a good mood when they go to see a movie. I can't remember being given a single behavioral instruction beyond "Say welcome to General Cinema if you're taking tickets at the door" and in the event of a complaint, "Listen, nod politely, and tell them that you're going to get a manager."
Trader Joe's pays above-union wages: as of 2010, supervisory crew members ("Merchants," and "Mates") can start at $35–50,000 per year and store managers ("Captain") can earn in the "low six figures." It contributes to an employee's standard 401(k) plan. As of 2013, pay for entry-level Crew Members was $10 to $11 an hour.[2][6]Honestly, those people are making more money than I am right now, and I own my own damn business! If I ever get tired of what I'm doing now, I could definitely think of worse jobs to have for that same amount of money.
Trader Joe's also offers health insurance benefits (dental, vision, and medical) to all employees and their dependents. Crew Members must work 900 hours per year (an average of 20 hours per week) and be employed for a minimum of three months consecutively to qualify. All Crew Members are evaluated every six months with the possibility of a pay increase. All employees also receive a 10 percent discount on items bought at the store.
In a 1984 dispatch in the New York Times, John Burns reports that “faced with inadequate supplies, low salaries and endless lines of customers, many Russians in customer-service jobs lapse into an indifference bordering on contempt.”The Politics Of Getting A Life
One can find numerous explanations of this phenomenon, from the shortcomings of the planned economy to the institutional structure of the Soviet service industry to the vagaries of the Russian soul to the legacy of serfdom. But one factor was clearly that Soviet workers, unlike their American counterparts, were guaranteed jobs, wages, and access to essential needs like housing, education, and health care. The fear that enforces fake happiness among capitalist service workers — culminating in the grotesquery of Pret a Manger — was mostly inoperative in the Soviet Union.
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posted by the mad poster! at 12:51 PM on February 1 [42 favorites]