The Emotional Toll of Frontline Labor

賓夕法尼亞州的心理學教授阿莉西亞·格蘭代（Alicia Grandey），二十余年里一直在研究一線服務(wù)人員受到的苛待如何影響他們的健康和工作效率。她考察的行為，從語言暴力到種族歧視或性騷擾。她還關(guān)注模棱兩可的情況，在這種情況下，無法明確判斷某些惡劣行為是否故意，比如顧客沒有為跟在自己身后的員工扶住門。 For more than two decades,?Alicia Grandey, a professor of psychology at Penn State, has been studying how the mistreatment of frontline service workers affects their health and productivity. The behavior she examines ranges from verbal abuse to racial or sexual harassment. She also looks at ambiguous circumstances, in which it’s unclear whether any harm was meant, such as when a customer doesn’t hold the door for an employee walking behind them. 隨著業(yè)務(wù)一線不文明行為的報告越來越多，我們與格蘭代聊了聊，以找出客戶互動對員工及業(yè)務(wù)造成的影響，這些影響企業(yè)應(yīng)當知曉。以下采訪經(jīng)過編輯。 With?reports of incivility?on the front lines of business increasing, we spoke with Grandey to find out what companies should know about how customer interactions affect both employees and businesses. What follows is an edited conversation.

你的研究表明，員工遭受的不文明行為多半是由顧客而非同事施加。這是為什么？

Your research?has shown that employees experience incivility more frequently from customers than from colleagues. Why is that?

首先，我們看的主要是一次性的顧客接觸，不是美發(fā)店的造型師和顧客之間那種會持續(xù)的關(guān)系。面對陌生人，顧客的責任感會降低：顧客覺得自己沒必要遵守規(guī)則，因為他們不會受到任何負面影響。再加上“顧客永遠是對的”這條全球公理，讓很多顧客覺得自己有權(quán)為所欲為。這些因素加在一起形成的權(quán)力差異，與員工面對老板時相當，卻沒有可以阻止不良行為的持續(xù)關(guān)系。 First of all, we’re primarily looking at one-off customer encounters, rather than at the ongoing relationships that, say, a salon stylist has with their clients. With strangers there’s less accountability: Customers don’t feel like they have to play by the rules, because there aren’t any negative repercussions for them. Add to that the global axiom that “the customer is always right,” and many customers have the sense that they’re entitled to act however they want to. Together, these factors set up the same power differential that an employee experiences with their boss, but without the ongoing relationship that can discourage bad behavior. 必須指出，對于大部分員工而言，不文明行為并不會頻繁發(fā)生——平均幾個月才有一次。不過，不文明行為來自顧客的可能性是來自同事或上司的兩倍。而且不文明行為對員工的情緒影響可能持續(xù)到發(fā)生當天之后。 It’s important to point out that incivility typically doesn’t happen very often to most employees — on average, once every few months. But incivility from customers is twice as likely to occur as incivility from coworkers or supervisors. And the emotional effects on the employee can last beyond that day.

防疫封鎖期間，顧客對一線員工的不文明行為得到了諸多關(guān)注。為什么現(xiàn)在這種現(xiàn)象成為公司的一個大問題？

Customer incivility to frontline workers got a lot of attention during the pandemic lockdowns. Why is it such a problem for companies now?

雖然有很多關(guān)于新冠大流行期間一線員工遭到虐待的說法，但我還沒有看到證據(jù)表明顧客真的變得對員工更加不文明了?？赡苁菍ε按囊庾R提升了：我們知道，虐待是由觀看者判斷的，而且可能受到情緒驅(qū)動。因此如果員工由于人手不足而疲憊不堪，而且他們很可能是害怕被傳染，就可能在模棱兩可的互動中感受到失禮。 While a lot was made of an increase in the mistreatment of frontline workers during the pandemic, I haven’t seen any evidence supporting the idea that customers have actually become more uncivil toward employees. It’s possible that there was an increase in?

perceptions?

of mistreatment; we know that incivility is in the eye of the beholder and that it can be driven by emotions. So, if employees were exhausted due to understaffing and scared about contagion — as they might well have been — they could have perceived some discourtesy in ambiguous interactions. 但如果說大流行還有一點好處，我想就是我們現(xiàn)在更加關(guān)注顧客對員工的虐待了，因為我們終于進一步意識到，員工的身心健康對于工作場所的運行至關(guān)重要。隨著大辭職潮（Great Resignation）到來，我們看到員工覺得不值得了——與其應(yīng)對顧客的不良行為，不如去找一份工資更高的遠程或辦公室工作。公司需要填補一線的空缺，所以這次服務(wù)人員有了一些權(quán)力。 But if there’s a silver lining of the pandemic, I think it’s that we’re now paying more attention to customer mistreatment of workers, because we’re finally more aware that the mental and physical well-being of employees is critical to functioning workplaces. With the Great Resignation, we’ve seen that employees are saying it’s not worth it anymore — rather than dealing with customers’ bad behavior, they can go get a higher-paid remote or desk job. Companies need to fill these frontline slots, so for once service employees have some power.

不文明的互動具體是如何造成傷害的？

What is it about an uncivil interaction that causes harm?

直接代價是，遭受不文明行為，或者只是旁觀這種行為，都會讓我們進入“戰(zhàn)”或“逃”模式，導致認知處理能力從我們嘗試關(guān)注的事物上移開。如果虐待行為不明確，就更是會這樣——員工會懷疑“這是粗魯?shù)男袨閱?？他們是故意的嗎？”于是反?fù)思考并因此分心。 The direct cost is that being the target of incivility or even just observing it can make us go into fight-or-flight mode, which takes our cognitive processing power away from the thing we are trying to focus on. That can be particularly true if the mistreatment is ambiguous — if the employee has to wonder “Was that rudeness? Did they mean it that way?” They ruminate and get distracted. 還有一項間接的代價，源于一線服務(wù)人員通常被（公司規(guī)定或社會規(guī)范）要求提供“微笑服務(wù)”，哪怕被顧客粗魯?shù)貙Υ?。如果做不到，后果可能很嚴重：得不到小費或者可能失去工作。因此員工不得不花費精力壓制自己自然的反應(yīng)，就會造成間接成本。聊起這個的時候我用手捂著肚子，因為我們的身體常常能感覺到在“假裝”的緊張感，這是一種生理上的感受。這就是我們所說的情緒勞動（Emotional Labor），這種勞動是真實的，就像搬箱子是真正的體力勞動一樣。 But there’s also an indirect cost that comes from frontline service workers’ typically being required — either by their company or by societal norms — to provide “service with a smile,” even when a customer is rude to them. The consequences can be high if they don’t: They won’t get tipped or might lose their job. So the indirect cost factors in when the employee has to expend energy to suppress their natural response. I’m holding my hand over my stomach as we talk about this, because often we physically feel the tension of “faking it” in our gut. That’s what we call emotional labor, and that labor is real, just like lifting boxes is real physical labor.

對從事不同類型工作的服務(wù)人員而言，對于顧客不文明行為的體驗是否有所不同？

Do service workers in different kinds of jobs experience customer incivility differently?

地位較低的服務(wù)人員，比如零售或快餐行業(yè)的一線員工，與顧客互動更頻繁，所以可能更頻繁地遭遇虐待。即使如此，他們遭受虐待的比例可能與酒店經(jīng)理或?qū)I(yè)服務(wù)提供者等地位較高的員工相同。而且雖然地位較高的員工與客戶直接互動的頻率較低，但他們通常與地位較高的人一起工作，而這部分人感到自己有更多特權(quán)和感知力，如我們所見，這種認知會導致更多的粗魯行為。 Those with lower status — frontline workers in retail or fast food, for example — have more-frequent interactions with customers, so they’re likely to experience mistreatment more frequently. That said, they’re likely to experience it at proportionally the same rate as higher-status workers, like hotel managers or professional service providers. And although higher-status employees may have less-frequent interactions with customers, often they may work with higher-status people who feel more entitled and have more perceived power, which, as we’ve seen, can lead to more rude behavior. 我們也知道，有持續(xù)關(guān)系的工作從業(yè)者，比如美發(fā)店的造型師，在情緒勞動上耗費的精力較少，因為他們與客戶有著更真實的關(guān)系。與之相比，服務(wù)時只有短暫接觸的人，比如餐飲業(yè)服務(wù)人員，就需要付出更多情緒勞動，因為第一印象對于顧客對門店或公司的看法至關(guān)重要。 We also know that people in jobs with ongoing relationships — such as salon stylists — expend less emotional labor, because they and their clients have more-authentic relationships. In contrast, with brief service encounters — such as those in food service — more emotional labor is needed because first impressions are so important to customers’ perception of the store or the company.

有小費的工作呢？你研究過這類職位（比如餐館服務(wù)員）與性騷擾等虐待行為之間的聯(lián)系。

What about tipped work specifically? You’ve done?research?about the connection between these positions — like waitstaff in a restaurant — and abusive behavior like sexual harassment.

我們已經(jīng)了解，餐館員工對小費的依賴造成了權(quán)力差異，導致顧客虐待他們。我們想更好地了解這種現(xiàn)象背后的機制，于是詢問餐館員工薪水中有多大比例來自小費，以及被要求微笑和隱藏任何負面情緒的程度，然后我們觀察這些因素是否與他們遭受討厭的性騷擾行為（如被觸摸手臂或要電話號碼）的頻率有關(guān)。我們發(fā)現(xiàn)，收入依賴小費和被要求對顧客微笑，使得某人遭受性騷擾的概率提升了30%。 We’ve known for a while that restaurant workers’ dependence on tips creates a power difference that leads customers to mistreat them. We wanted to better understand the mechanisms behind that, so we asked restaurant employees what percentage of their pay comes from tips and how much they were required to smile and to hide any negative emotions. Then we looked to see if these factors were related to how often they experienced unwanted sexual behavior, like being touched on the arm or asked for their phone number. What we found is that depending on tips for income and being required to smile at customers increased someone’s incidence of sexual harassment by 30%.

種族有什么影響？比如說，非裔美國人是否更有可能遭受顧客的不文明行為？

What role does race play? Are Black Americans more likely to experience customer incivility, for example?

其實我們在2007年的一項研究中發(fā)現(xiàn)，白人員工報告的由于不文明行為而感受到的壓力比黑人員工更大——幾乎是兩倍。不過這種衡量標準是主觀的，而且不太覺得自己受到虐待的人可能會對微小的怠慢更敏感。然而我們觀察雜貨店和某零售店的服務(wù)人員，發(fā)現(xiàn)不對顧客微笑的白人員工通常不會被判定為惡意，而黑人員工不對顧客微笑則被認為是不那么熱情或?qū)嶋H上懷有敵意。 In a 2007?study, we actually found that white employees reported feeling more stress due to incivility than Black employees did — almost twice as much. But this kind of measure is subjective, and people who don’t tend to get mistreated might be more sensitive to small slights. However, when we?looked at?service workers in grocery stores and a retail store, we found that white employees who didn’t smile at customers tended to be given the benefit of the doubt and were viewed positively, while Black employees who didn’t smile were assumed to be less warm or actually hostile.

你的大部分研究關(guān)注的是美國。其他國家對于如何對待服務(wù)人員有怎樣的期待？

For most of these studies, you focused on the U.S. What expectations do other countries have around how service employees should be treated?

我不知道有什么研究廣泛關(guān)注全球的不文明行為，但我猜測是有文化差異的。在美國，轉(zhuǎn)開目光不看某人和不對某人微笑被視為粗魯，而在俄羅斯不笑是正常的，在塞內(nèi)加爾移開視線不看地位較高的人被看作是恭敬。因此一定有社會差異影響著怎樣的行為被當作不文明，比如關(guān)于情緒表達與社會和諧的文化規(guī)則。 I don’t know of any research looking at global incivility broadly, but my guess would be that it really does differ culturally. In the U.S., looking away from someone and not smiling at them are seen as rude, while in Russia?not smiling is normal?and in Senegal looking away from someone of higher status is considered?courteous. So, there are definitely social differences that could affect what is viewed as uncivil, such as the culture’s norms around emotional expression and social harmony. 然而全世界顧客對服務(wù)人員的期望是比較一致的。我和同事做了一項研究，調(diào)查新加坡、以色列、法國和美國這四個國家的人們對人際交往的期望。我們發(fā)現(xiàn)，在同事和朋友的關(guān)系上，各國人的期望不同，但對于員工與顧客的關(guān)系，期望都是員工會隱藏真實感受、保持積極態(tài)度。法國的這項期望有些不同（或許這點可以解釋美國人覺得法國零售店員沒禮貌的刻板印象?。@個國家的文化更富于感性，并且把服務(wù)工作視為事業(yè)——員工通常能獲得足以維生的工資，不依賴小費。 What customers expect of service workers is more universal, however. My colleagues and I did a study that looked at the expectations people have for interpersonal interactions in four countries: Singapore, Israel, France, and the U.S. We found that those expectations were different in each country when it came to relationships between coworkers and between friends, but with customers the expectation was always that employees would hide their true feelings and stay positive. There was some exception to this in France (which perhaps explains the stereotype of French retail employees’ being rude to Americans!), which has a more expressive culture and also views service work as a career — employees are typically paid a living wage without being dependent on tips.

總的來看，對員工不禮貌的代價是什么？

All told, what are the costs of incivility toward employees?

人在受到侮辱時自然會憤怒或惱火——而服務(wù)人員必須控制這些情緒，才能做好自己的工作。我們的研究表明，這種“表面功夫”會在情緒、認知和身體上消耗我們，還有許多研究發(fā)現(xiàn)，這種情緒勞動與職業(yè)倦怠和員工流動率有關(guān)。 When people are insulted, naturally they feel outraged or annoyed — and service workers have to control these emotions to do their jobs well.?Our research?has shown that this “surface acting” depletes us emotionally, cognitively, and physically, and?many studies?have found that this form of emotional labor is linked to job burnout and turnover. 為了研究對認知和表現(xiàn)的影響，我們做了一個呼叫中心模擬，要求參與者執(zhí)行需要關(guān)注細節(jié)的任務(wù)，如計算7%的稅費。工作過程中，有一半的參與者被一個打來電話的人惡語相向。這部分參與者犯的錯誤比另一半得以安靜完成工作的人更多。如果參與者還被要求在電話里與粗魯?shù)娜私徽剷r保持微笑，這種負面效應(yīng)會被放大。 To research the impact on cognition and performance, we did a?call center simulation?in which we asked participants to perform tasks that required attention to detail, such as computing a 7% tax. In the course of their work, half of the participants were mistreated by a phone caller. Those participants made more errors than the ones who were left to do the work in peace. That negative effect was amplified if they were also expected to smile during their conversation with the rude caller. 我們還發(fā)現(xiàn)工作中的情緒勞動會外溢到家庭生活，這個發(fā)現(xiàn)讓我更驚訝。一項研究中，我們發(fā)現(xiàn)，酒店經(jīng)理越是因為在工作中假裝積極情緒（比如不得不應(yīng)對不文明的顧客）而疲憊，其配偶就越是會說他們的工作影響了家庭生活，希望他們辭職。事實上，情緒勞動對婚姻伴侶的影響高于其他工作壓力來源和負面人格類型。在另一項研究中，我們發(fā)現(xiàn)面對顧客的員工越是在工作中假裝積極情緒，就越會在下班后大量飲酒。 I was more surprised by our findings about the spillover that emotional labor at work can have into home life. In?one study?we found that the more exhausted hotel managers were feeling from faking positive emotions at work — if they had to deal with uncivil clients, for example — the more their spouses said the job interfered with their home life and wanted them to quit. In fact, the costs of emotional labor on marital partners were higher than the effects of other job stressors or negative personality types. In?another study, we found that the more customer-facing employees faked positive emotions during their workday, the more likely they were to drink heavily after work. 這種情緒勞動的負面影響會形成長期循環(huán)。發(fā)生了一些事情（也許是某位顧客對你不禮貌），你不得不裝出微笑，顧客能看出你在敷衍，你跟他們的互動突然就變得不那么順暢了。這讓你更有可能犯錯。在我參與合作的一些新的研究里，我們發(fā)現(xiàn)這種螺旋式效應(yīng)會隨著時間而累積。一旦員工開始對顧客假裝積極情緒，就越來越難恢復(fù)可以真心微笑的狀態(tài)。 The negative effects of this emotional labor can create a perpetuating cycle. Something happens (maybe a customer is rude to you) and you have to fake a smile. Customers can tell when you’re just phoning it in; suddenly your interactions with them don’t go so well. That makes you more likely to make a mistake. In some new research I’m collaborating on, we find this spiraling effect builds up over time: Once employees start faking positive emotions with customers, it becomes harder and harder for them to get back to a place where they really mean that smile.

組織該做些什么來應(yīng)對這個問題？

What can organizations do to address this toll?

企業(yè)應(yīng)當考慮為全體員工提供那種通常只為地位較高的服務(wù)人員（比如醫(yī)生）提供的情緒培訓。培訓重點是兩個概念：超然的同理心，即在不吸收顧客或患者負面情緒的前提下與他們產(chǎn)生共鳴，以及“深度行動”，即員工采取行動讓自己的感受與預(yù)期的工作行為一致，這樣就不會覺得只是在臉上貼上了微笑的假面具。舉個例子，深度行動可以是在心理上把一名粗魯?shù)念櫩椭貥?gòu)為一個苦于生活困難的人，這可以幫助員工露出更真誠的微笑。這兩種技巧都被證明可以減輕因為假裝而產(chǎn)生的負面壓力，甚至可以提升業(yè)績。 Companies should consider offering all employees the kind of emotional training that is typically made available only to those in higher-status service roles, such as doctors. It focuses on two concepts: compassionate detachment, which is the ability to empathize with the customer or patient without taking in their negative emotions, and “deep acting,” in which the employee performs some action to bring their feelings in line with the expected work behavior, so they don’t feel like they’re just pasting on a smile. Deep acting might involve, for example, mentally reframing a rude customer as someone struggling with a difficult life event, which could help the employee’s smile be more authentic. Both of these techniques are shown to reduce the negative stress that comes from faking it, and they can even improve performance. 但把培訓的負擔放在會遭到虐待的人們肩上不算是什么好主意。相反，最好給員工自主權(quán)——讓他們選擇如何應(yīng)對顧客的惡劣對待，無論是選擇在覺得假裝微笑比較方便時假裝微笑，還是對行為越界的人不客氣。我們的研究表明，與被迫假裝微笑相比，自己選擇假裝微笑的負面效果會減少。 But it’s not a great idea to put the burden of training on the people who are the target of mistreatment. Instead, it’s better to give employees autonomy — to give them a choice about how to respond to mistreatment from customers, whether that means faking a smile when doing so feels easy or being curt to someone whose behavior has crossed a line. Our research shows that the negative effects of faking a smile are reduced when someone chooses to do it, as compared with when they’re forced to. 歸根結(jié)底，組織要給員工提供與他們價值相襯的酬勞，以此表達對員工的重視。在一系列實地和實驗室研究中，我們發(fā)現(xiàn)，如果員工為情緒勞動得到了經(jīng)濟補償，就不會感覺太糟糕。 Ultimately, organizations need to show that they value their employees by paying them what they’re worth. In a?series of field and experimental studies, we found that emotional labor did not feel so bad when people were financially compensated for that labor. 阿尼婭·維科夫斯基是《哈佛商業(yè)評論》英文版執(zhí)行主編。 阿尼婭·維科夫斯基（Ania G. Wieckowski) | 訪?? 蔣薈蓉 | 譯??時青靖 | 校??廖琦菁 | 編輯