THE UNDERAPPRECIATION AND UNDERVALUATION OF SERVICE WORKERS

Service workers are individuals who work in positions including cleaning service, food service, protective services, and personal services. Examples include cooks, bartenders, medical care assistants, hairdressers, cleaners, janitors, and firefighters. Service workers are essential: they keep us safe, fed, and healthy. Despite their enormous contributions to their community, service workers are generally underappreciated, overlooked, and underpaid.

Customer engagement and interactions are a vital part of service workers’ jobs. However, workers have often had to put up with customer abuse. The mantra “the customer is always right” has led to a toxic mindset in which consumers believe they have a right to abuse and mistreat service workers. In the past year, reports of aggressive customers and workers being attacked have increasingly surfaced. In a poll done by the UC Berkeley Food Labor Research Center, it was found that “80% of workers… experienced hostile behavior from customers.” In most cases, customers are hostile and aggressive towards service workers because they don’t respect them enough to see eye-to-eye with them.

Although toxic consumer culture is mainly due to the undervaluation of service workers by customers, it is further perpetuated by service workers' management. Managements have put such an emphasis on customer satisfaction and prioritize the customer’s end experience over an employee’s wellbeing. Additionally, workers are expected to provide as much as possible for customers, as seen in a survey done by MaxContact which found that 84 percent of workers feel pressured by their management to have more quantity over quality when it comes to customer interactions. Companies such as Amazon have created an environment with the expectation that the customer will get what they want when they want it but in doing so, they have had to sacrifice the satisfaction of their own workers to please the customers instead.

In a 2020 USC Marshall School of Business study, it was found that employees across many different service sectors felt underappreciated by their bosses. The study focused on how many times workers experienced expressions of appreciation for their work and gratitude in the workplace. The survey was completed by 12,000 American workers and of those 12,000 only 52.9% said that they are thanked by their supervisors at least weekly. Workers aren’t often explicitly appreciated by their supervisors which affects worker morale. Prior research done by Peter Cardon, a professor at USC Marshall, and his co-authors Janna Wong and Cole Christie found that when employees feel appreciated they are more likely to be more engaged and committed. The study also found that workers value individual handwritten notes or spoken words of thanks because it shows effort from their supervisors to express their gratitude.

Despite their contributions, service workers have been overlooked and haven’t received the praise they deserve from those they serve, and more often than not experience harassment or violent outbursts from their customers. Consumers have a responsibility to respect and appreciate what service workers do for them such as help feed them, protect them, and keep them healthy. It is important to be mindful that service workers are doing the best they can to provide for us as efficiently as they can while also balancing other customers. Managements also have a responsibility to appreciate the workers who keep them in business and bring them loyal customers. Service workers have the right to work in an environment that cares for them, just as they care for others. Managements should provide a safe space for service workers to voice their concerns, whether in regards to how customers treat them or how to increase their productivity and abilities in the workplace.