Credit: Twitter user @davenewworld_2
If you are among the millions of courteous, hard-working Americans who toil in customer service, you’ve been on the “front lines” since well before COVID. But now, it’s more challenging than ever.
Even prior to the pandemic, customer service workers were too often mistreated by rude, overbearing clods who think anyone paid to serve them is somehow less than human. Today, except for the victims of discrimination, the most frequent targets of America’s declining civility are not politicians (some of whom deserve it) or people who drive the speed limit (who don’t). Rather, they are the restaurant staff, flight attendants, convenience store clerks, salespeople and other customer service reps (CSRs) who are required to courteously attend to the boorish curmudgeons who come their way, no matter how much emotional abuse that entails.
Then in walk the COVID deniers who refuse to wear a mask and, when politely asked to do so, regress to an emotional age of six. Now, some CSRs are being asked to assume the role of enforcer, as well as servant. Many have been verbally assaulted, some physically, and others threatened with guns. Why? So some self-centered, to-hell-with-the-rest-of-you type can take their anti-establishment statement out on someone who is merely attempting to enforce the rules, not make them.
Put on a Happy Face
Granted, there are service workers who are also ill-mannered, and some may deserve a taste of their own medicine, but that’s the exception. Most put on a happy face, say “please” and “thank you,” and sincerely strive to accommodate the needs of others, which, for the entitlement-laden among us, are boundless. They engage in what is termed “emotional labor,” the difficult process of restraining one’s feelings while being excoriated by others.
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The psychology behind this “treat em like dirt” attitude is transparent. Take a customer who is either having a bad day or is just ill-tempered by nature, put them in the vicinity of a respectful CSR, and you have a shark with blood in the water. It’s been said that evil begins when we treat people like things, and that’s what bullies do. Often, they lack the gumption to victimize those who are free to fight back, so, instead, they target the institutionally constrained, like CSRs, who must tolerate this emotional oppression while keeping one mental hand tied behind their backs.
Consider a few of many examples I’ve run across.
• A woman was chatting amicably with her friend at a store counter and then turned to the smiling salesclerk with an abruptly cold, metallic demeanor. “Hurry it along, will you?” she snarled, and then turned to her companion and loudly carped, “They are so slow here.”
• After being told that his flight was delayed due to weather, a man verbally ripped the apologetic gate rep from belly button to eyeball, loudly concluding with, “This airline sucks, and so do you!” Ostensibly, because they can’t control the weather.
• A guy at a fast food restaurant was short-changed a quarter by a harried adolescent CSR in training. “You kids can’t even count,” he scowled, holding up the coin in question. “You owe me another one of these!”
• And, of course, there is the anti-masker in a convenience store who screamed at the masked and gloved clerk about “tyranny” and “freedom” and the rest of the drivel he used to justify why he endangers other people’s lives because he’s so incredibly special.
Remember common human decency? Well, however uncommon it was before, the COVID era has made it rarer still. So, if you’re in customer service, which now dominates our economy, don’t expect much mercy from the emotional bullies out there. If you’re lucky, you work for someone who won’t tolerate your mistreatment by customers, no matter the business cost.
When I worked at Empathia, a human services firm, we had one immutable rule for screening employment candidates. We took them to lunch and observed how they treated the server. Several otherwise good-looking prospects hit the eject button that way. Why? Because being kind and respectful is a choice. And whenever we make that choice, it makes us.
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