Eureka Alert:Helping employees cope with aggressive customers Penn State, 6/24/04
"Helping employees cope with aggressive customers
Clerks in box stores, supermarkets and motels -- as well as waitresses, secretaries and flight attendants -- know in their hearts that the customer is NOT always right, despite what the boss might say. When exposed to pushy or irritable customers, employees in high-stress jobs need the assurance of an emotional safety net, according to a Penn State researcher...What exacerbates the stress for employees is the feeling that they have nowhere to go; they simply have to take it -- or else."
This may be an important thing for (public) librarians who manage the poorly paid, sometimes abused circ staff. They have to deal with a lot more unhappy customers.
Whole citation: Alicia A. Grandey, David N. Dickter, Hock-Peng Sin, "The customer is not always right: customer aggression and emotion regulation of service employees," Journal of Organizational Behavior v.25 no.3 (May 2004): 397-418. Subscribers can click here.
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