Staff Exhausted and Cynical After Serving Customers With a Smile

A new study has indicated that the effort to always appear cheerful and friendly with customers takes a toll on staff, as they start feeling emotionally exhausted and cynical. A team of psychologists, led by Doctor Cristina Quinoqes-Garcia of the University of Northampton Business School, surveyed 199 customer service employees.

It measured the extent to which they were required to simulate emotion in their jobs, the amount of effort they had to put in to achieve this and the extent to which they were emotionally exhausted and cynical, the Daily Mail reported.

It was found that people who felt they had to make a greater effort than most to simulate cheerfulness were significantly more likely to be left feeling both emotionally exhausted and cynical.

"This study has two practical implications," Dr Quinoqes-Garcia said.

"The perceived effort of candidates should be evaluated at the recruitment stage as this could help identify those individuals who are more vulnerable to burnout.

"And organisations should have mechanisms in place to help employees build resources that help them cope with the emotional labour they have to carry out when dealing with customers," Dr Quinoqes-Garcia added.

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Source-ANI