Yes: singing opera! Humans have this strange relationship with emotions: produce them on demand, and be handsomely paid to make others feel their own emotions: that’s showbiz, folks!

I could pride myself on being able to express an emotion on command, but find the scripted enthusiasm of e.g.Pret employess to be horrific…is there a contradiction here?

… omg, this explains those scarily friendly folks at T2.

Worker behavior is hard to monitor. How do you know that the worker is being care with the merchandise even when you can’t observe her? How do you know that the cashier is smiling – and making customers feel better – even when the customer is timid and unlikely to complain (but likely to never come back)? How do you know the nurse will replace everyone’s bedpans on time – and spare helpless and clueless people hours of misery – even when her supervisor is on leave?

Workers that are genuinely and emotionally connected to their job are more likely to do all these things. The trick then is to find the ones who are connected. The performance reviews of Pret etc (see article) is thus a way of separating the wheat from the chaff. You aren’t “required” to feel deeply, but rewarded with this high paying job if you do. Less emotional workers can take their labour to places that cares less about such feelings, pays workers less and charge customers lower prices. Some restaurants hire the best chefs. McDonald’s isn’t one of them. There’s space for everyone.

A modern sociologist may disagree, and insist that all types of labour are “produced” – i.e. created – by the system. That may well be true but (a) this is the reason that the system produces such labour, (b) so is it really such a bad thing?

@Todd Not all corporations; there’s certainly something unusual about a coder for Valve (makers of Half Life and Portal) who isn’t deeply invested in his job.

Perhaps it is one reason there is so much burnout.