Oh, gee... ya think?

This morning as I perused the Internet, I found this article. It seemed to me that the writer was stating the obvious.

The article says, in part:

FRANKFURT, Germany, May 16 (UPI) -- A German scientist has proved that people forced to smile and take on-the-job insults suffer more and longer-lasting stress that may harm their health.

Dieter Zapf of the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University in Frankfurt studied 4,000 volunteers working in a fake call center. Half were allowed to respond in kind to abuse on the other end of the line while the other half had to suck it up, The Telegraph reports.

Back in the day, when I used to work at an IT Help Desk, the pressure put on all of us to be constantly nice regardless of the behavior of the person on the other end was intense. I recall at one point the supervisors putting a mirror in our cubicles, telling us that we should use them to make sure we were "smiling" because "the customer can hear it in your voices."

My immediate reaction was to take it down and toss it in a drawer because when all is said and done, I do not suffer fools gladly.

The emphasis on this constant faux cheeriness was relentless. There were meetings about it. There were emails about it. They brought in professional corporate trainers to drive home the point that we were merely service objects and should not express any emotion at all.

It began to feel like emotional prostitution. I and my coworkers were IT professionals, not telemarketers. Just the same, we were told that no matter how we were treated, that we should not show our frustration or unhappiness with being talked to in such a manner.

I'm not advocating being rude. At the same time, I can not abide the idea of anyone having to take abuse in order to earn money.

The article continues:

He found that those able to answer back had a brief increase in heart rate. Those who could not had stress symptoms that lasted much longer.

"Every time a person is forced to repress his true feelings there are negative consequences," Zapf said. "We are all able to rein in our emotions but it becomes difficult to do this over a protracted period."

Well, duh! No one is suggesting that customers and representatives get into screaming matches or begin calling each other names and verbally brawling. It only seems to be common sense that emotional prostitution would have negative health consequences.

The solution? According to the article:

In an interview with the German healthcare magazine Apotheken Umschau, Zapf suggested that people who must keep smiling on the job should get regular breaks to let it out.

Wrong. The solution is to make a simple statement. "When you are able to discuss this in a calm and respectful manner, please call back. I'm sure someone will be happy to help you."

What do you think?
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