Term Paper on "Service With a Smile"

Term Paper 5 pages (1687 words) Sources: 2

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Indeed, when she was asked the "scream or frown" question, her answer was an emphatic "yes." She says her coworkers keep her going and were it not for them, she would have "snapped" and walked out on the job much like Aniston's character did in Office Space. However, she needs the job and the money and she says that this is a common refrain with many of her coworkers. She says she understands that customers do not want some waitress scowling at them and being short with them. However, she says the job is quite intolerable at times and some customers are rather rude and inconsiderate to her and they implicitly know she cannot fight back without losing her job. She says that the job wears her down and she loses more and more confidence in how good people can be. She knows that is not right or valid but she says that she cannot help it sometimes. A third person interviewed for this report said much the same thing. She says that the people she serves on the phone sometimes know full well that she cannot snap back or be rude because it would get her fired or at least written up. As such, they use that as a cudgel to get their way and get what they want.

Conclusion

As made clear through the research and the interviews, employers do have an interest with a certain image being portrayed via their employees. However, this mask that employees put on is clearly just that most times…a mask. The jobs involved are usually low-paying, quite thankless and stressful. In many ways, it would seem to be just another way to glean more productivity and results out of the same (or less) dollars spent on wages and benefits for the workers.

Works Cited

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