Laughing Matters: The Price of Making Nice

It's not easy being nice.

You may already know this if you supervise a maximum-security prison, traffic in humans or command a pirate ship: It's bad for workers to be good to customers. That's especially true for employees who have to fake being nice to people who don't have to fake being jerks.

Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania conducted a study of call-center employees who were required to be polite and friendly to customers, no matter how rude the callers were. This forced amiability leads to "emotional exhaustion," the researchers note. It's a major factor in turnover, absenteeism, perfor-mance problems and loafing. All of which, of course, are problems for the employer. "There's nothing worse than having service people who are just burned out on the job," notes one researcher.

Anyone who has ever had to work with difficult people knows just how hard it is. I can personally testify to that. I once had a job in public relations that basically involved relating to the public about my employer (see "pirate," above). It also entailed talking to angry people on the phone and, worse, being on those awful call-in radio programs, where I would have to be amiable and unflappable for long periods between commercials for storm windows and adjustable beds. Did I find the experience emotionally exhausting? And did it lead, in my case, to turnover, absenteeism, performance problems and loafing? Pretty much so. And it didn't do much for my attitude to the workplace (see "maximum-security prison," above).

Many customer-service employees are asked to do more than just suppress their negative feelings. They're often required to end every call by making a sales pitch. The researchers also note that many of these workers are given mirrors and told to smile while they're on the phone because their voices will sound happier. But are exchanges like the following really what angry callers want?