Hidden Costs of “Service with a Smile” | Laura Hockenbury | TEDxBoulder

[@markaidinovich1985]

Thank you Laura for brilliantly sparking an important discussion. As a retail employee, nothing is more depressing than someone not looking you in the eye. even a quick glance would make me feel more like a human... I am still not perfect so thank you for encouraging me to go the extra mile to make someone's day.

[@mwalimudeluca758]

Thanks for bringing an ethnographic eye to the service industry. Thanks for diving deep into the emotional labor and shame in the work place.

[@sueheilbronner]

This talk totally shifted my consciousness on interactions with service and retail industry workers. A must-watch.

[@margaretromney4357]

Wow...."do you feel shame about this job?" It's stunning to me that this shame and exhaustion is so invisibly interwoven into our every day lives. Thank you for showing me a new way to interact and why it's important.

[@gavindsouza7401]

Loved your talk especially because I work in hospitality. I could really connect with whatever you said.

[@suzannemckee876]

This was such a great talk, very powerful thank you! The world will be a better place when we can take your words to heart.

[@AndrewHyde]

What a fantastic talk Laura! Loved how you closed it with such a simple and powerful ask.

[@danielledannenberg8400]

I hope we can all put this into practice! So subtle and important.

[@frostyxelectra]

i just pretend to be a robot like a fancy walmart self-checkout, it really helps me disassociate​ from the disrespect for 8 hours a day

[@wardka]

My social anxiety has reached the point I can no longer use the telephone without being debilitated for a good portion of the day afterward. Spending 17 years in accounts payable listening to the badgering of bill collectors hasn't helped. Therapy is helping, but I'll try to extend these ideas to the telephone / email customer service scenario. It sounds wonderful. If only there weren't too many incoming calls and emails for the average human to handle! People are already angry before I can get to them. Maybe connecting can diffuse some of that.

[@Bryantist1]

Alienart you might want consider checking out The Power of Now. It helped my tremendously with my anxiety and helped to change my perspective. All the best.

[@trash.pandaaa]

i hope you feel better each day^^

[@UncompressedWAVmusic]

Great talk. It felt good.

[@luhhdeecee]

i’m watching this for job corps lmao🙄 but no cap that message she gave at the end was very true & raw 💯

[@Tube82ful]

Agreed, people in services are brave...

[@blairy7400]

Mutual respect and truly communicate

[@gavinleepermusic]

Great talk Laura! I really enjoyed hearing this.

[@rizalinojuliano3702]

Great work.

[@UneducatedPhotographer]

Produce clerks get to be both emotionally and physically drained.

[@alex314pi]

7:21 that's a restaurant in Argentina!

[@matthewcross9314]

While I appreciate the sentiment, these individualistic "solutions" do nothing to impact the larger systems/institutions that rely on low-wage/low-power work. Taking a moment to be kind to someone and listen does nothing to change their exploitation as a wage-earner. We can't "listen" or "care" our way out of this, though I truly wish we could.

[@stoichr3324]

It's literally a death. a slow one after stress and burnouts. At what cost?

[@cheesyboicapree8110]

Customers aren't even humans to me anymore

[@ccmjj9770]

What type of customer are you? Do you also think of others who work in the service industry as not human, or just your customers? There are plenty of careers/jobs where you can be your miserable self without it affecting others.

[@entrepreneur724]

She completely misses the point. The jobs under the "livable" wage aren't meant to sustain a family. They are for teenagers learning how to work and take direction, just getting their feet wet in the work force. The real takeaway from these statistics is that many Americans don't have the drive to move to bigger and better things, and instead complain. You have the power to change your own life. Don't let this type of thinking hold you back. Go out and get what you want in life. No one is doing it for you.

[@robertcook1344]

Says who? People rent out their time and talents where there is demand, and owners pay as little as they can get away with to maximize their own advantage. If the jobs were really either only meant for inexperienced teens or if they were even the best choices that’s all who would be hired. But the owner class selects the best workers they can get for the very least expense, because raw profit is all they care about, and that value is built into our entire system.

[@entrepreneur724]

@@robertcook1344 You are correct. The owner does pay as little as possible to maximize their own advantage. If someone applies for a job that is over qualified, knowing that the pay is X, and meant for the inexperienced, why should the owner pay them more? It is not the owners responsibility to pay them more. The employee chose to take the job at X. If the employee wants more than X, they can apply for jobs that pay more. If it was the opposite and you were buying product X, and the product was provided in a way a little better than you expected, would you pay them extra?

[@onjulraz754]

@@entrepreneur724 these comments did not age well, lol. weird that you ask if people would pay more for a better service.. have you ever been to a restaurant?

[@entrepreneur724]

@@onjulraz754 Weird that you didn’t read my question right. I said, would you pay them more if the services was better than you expected? For example, in your comment of a restaurant, if you sat down, and knew the cost was $20, but the food blew you away, would you pay them $40? Of course you wouldn’t.

[@mikeparrott8304]

You miss the point. The lower level substantial jobs such as colemining etc are gone. The non degree holders need reasonably paid jobs to.

[@ksf3519]

Solid points, but would have been better if you included all the government subsidies available to that family of 4. It becomes a lot more reasonable when you do.

[@searchingforchester]

its not the easy. You basically have to make nothing in order to get approved for assistance.

[@johnprovias4837]

Most ppl don't understand the struggle until they have walked it themselves. It seems that would apply to you Andrew P

[@autumn1231]

wow she's nervous...i would be too