"Making workers smile backfires"
- Thread starter Gaze
- Start date
Have you ever spoken to a professional about it. Maybe there are ways to change the association. Jeez, I don't know. Wish I could solve it for you.
I dunno I was in counseling once for unrelated issues, mostly just because I dropped out of school, but we never got far cause my mother's insurance stopped paying for it. And I never really told the therapist anything anyway just because, I just didn't for some reason...well it was the state of mind I was in during that time, a very bad state of mind where I was struggling to 'keep in control' by no revealing any of my true thoughts or emotions like was wanted from me.
That's fine. You did what you were able to handle. If the negative associations for touch really bother you then one day you should try to sort it out. Touch should be pleasurable.
It's not for me so I do think there's some issue there. I have been that way for almost as long as I can remember. But anyway. -end thread derail-
but what if they didn't smile at you and they let you see how much they hate their job. if they acted like the don't give a shit then you would call them rude
I think that is extreme. If I understand this, fake smiling places employees under stress and increases their unhappiness. Well the solution is to stop fake smiling not to be rude. It's still possible to be pleasant and attentive without walking around with an out of place smile. The fake smiling is the very opposite of pleasant and is just manipulative. Customers see right through it.
a little harsh, that, given the economy. If employers want their employees to smile or at least fake smile, the working conditions the employers set up should facilitate that behaviour. Basic customer service training, and support for when things inevitably go wrong, should be in place.
Fake smiling can be creepy.
I know someone who works at a pizza chain and they won some kind of employee award. They got to go to a lunch with the CEO.. and at the photo, the CEO stood there with a broad smile screwed onto his face and he was making these weird fake laughing noises with his mouth like that--trying to sustain the smile. Which made him seem insane if not ingenuine. God. I wish I could demonstrate this to you guys.
I know someone who works at a pizza chain and they won some kind of employee award. They got to go to a lunch with the CEO.. and at the photo, the CEO stood there with a broad smile screwed onto his face and he was making these weird fake laughing noises with his mouth like that--trying to sustain the smile. Which made him seem insane if not ingenuine. God. I wish I could demonstrate this to you guys.
I also think there is a difference between fake smiling and pretending to be happy, If someone else is forcing you to smile it probably behaves in a different way than you forcing yourself to smile. I actually just watched a video on TED that explained scientifically why simulated happiness is actually just as real as happiness from a cause. Also this seems like a really limited study with a strong lack of controls nothing about "Monitoring a group of bus drivers" seems very scientific to me at all. It is also likely that many employers don't give a damn if their employees are happy as long as their customers are happy.
Employers should do something to make their workers happy.
I took a focus groups class a few semesters ago and this one group did a focus group on the customers of Target.
The customers said that they would like Target better if the employees had a better attitude and were happy to assist them.
The group recommended that Target employees smile more and act happy to help.
My professor said, "Lol wut? I'm sure they are getting paid crap, barely enough to survive and I'm sure their benefits aren't very good. Target isn't a career choice, retail is usually a job people take when there isn't much else available. You can't just tell them to be happy and expect it to happen under those conditions."
Point being: Employees are human beings just like customers! Not robots.
I took a focus groups class a few semesters ago and this one group did a focus group on the customers of Target.
The customers said that they would like Target better if the employees had a better attitude and were happy to assist them.
The group recommended that Target employees smile more and act happy to help.
My professor said, "Lol wut? I'm sure they are getting paid crap, barely enough to survive and I'm sure their benefits aren't very good. Target isn't a career choice, retail is usually a job people take when there isn't much else available. You can't just tell them to be happy and expect it to happen under those conditions."
Point being: Employees are human beings just like customers! Not robots.
It's strange that employers should try to make their employees smile, without trying to make them happy. Seems retarded.