When faced with rude customers, people in the service sector sometimes exact revenge – but they're much more likely to do so if their boss mistreats them as well, according to a new study by Professor Daniel Skarlicki and Associate Professor Danielle van Jaarsveld of UBC's Sauder School of Business.
"Research shows that the customer mistreatment of front-line employees is becoming increasingly common," said Skarlicki. "Our study finds that in call centres these employees can react by hanging up on customers or misdirecting their calls. But they're more likely to strike back if they feel their boss is unfair."
According to Skarlicki, a boss's conduct is a significant factor in determining how employees perceive the company they work for because he or she is the "face" of the organization. Their management style has a direct impact on how their employees conduct themselves.
"Supervisors of front-line service workers can be their own worst enemy," said Skarlicki. "They think their job is about supervising, scheduling and facilitating. But really, they should see treating their employees with respect and dignity as an integral part of their job description – anything south of that will cause trouble."
Sounds like confirmation of pecking order.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 08 2015, @01:39AM
Nuf said
(Score: 4, Interesting) by dyingtolive on Thursday October 08 2015, @02:14AM
We prided ourselves on having US call centers that were still abused by clients, such that there was process for dealing with it and training to help prepare people for it. There were even a handful of people who got so abusive that we'd tell them to go fuck themselves and revoke support agreements. It worked well.
Fast forward a few years, we downsized the group that handled training, citing that all necessary training would be provided by 'e-training'. About this time was when most of the client-facing stuff got shipped over to Manila. We (the enterprise support group) didn't because they couldn't figure out how to get rid of the years of knowledge that even the 1st level support people had. My predecessor and mentor actually managed to help pull that one off when one of the "Bobs" was actually listening in on one of his phone calls. It worked well, except people would call us looking for desktop help, begging for us to not transfer us to the desktop support guys, and as the senior escalation point by then, I had to do the REAL training because the training was a joke, and I stepped in every time one of those assholes made one of my female coworkers start crying. It may or may not be worth noting that, while I won't disclose the full names of the clients, they were named things similar in cultural origin to "Majid". The latter part was a personal mission, and within the scope of being a point of escalation. It's hard to deal with someone crying next to you when you're just trying to get through the day.
I marched them into the manager's office so they weren't my problem (and anything to get them the fuck away from being chained to a desk, waiting for the next dickhead to repeat the process) and took the calls (which were all recorded at the time) to management, only they didn't do anything about it anymore. Our clients were frequent callers enough that it got to the point that whenever one of them, which we're immediately recognized, usually got transferred directly to me. It was about this time that the client facing people started dropping like flies. I did a lot of side projects for the company and after they realized I could sling code, I managed to get transferred to a QA group that writes tests in python. It has it's own little fucked up misfortune of problems, but at least I can blame all of that on the company, not a voice on a phone now. Last I heard my former group wasn't even allowed to hire new people nowadays. They're contractors or nothing. I can't imagine what the fuck the quality of support might be.
If there's one thing to take away from my rambling anecdote, don't deal with the Wall Street crowd unless you have some thick fucking skin. Most of the east coasters I've spoken with have been among the worst sorts I've encountered, but that might be the job.
The sickest part was that the immediate managers were, all things considered, pretty decent people. They just got no support from those above them when shit came up.
Don't blame me, I voted for moose wang!
(Score: 3, Informative) by Phoenix666 on Thursday October 08 2015, @09:34AM
Wall Street people are stupid and arrogant and aggressive because they think money=talent. In fact, they get paid a lot of money to do nothing a simple Excel macro couldn't do. On a deep level they know it and it feeds the arrogance and aggression as a coping mechanism, and because that's what the work culture rewards. Ask them to figure out something real or do something actually useful, and they'll blink and mumble something about it being for the "quants" to figure out or something they can hire out for.
No one should have to deal with Wall Street people ever again.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Runaway1956 on Thursday October 08 2015, @02:35PM
"In fact, they get paid a lot of money to do nothing a simple Excel macro couldn't do."
I am neither a Microsoft nor an Excel guy - but thank you all the same. People who can't find their asses with both hands should never be given a job, let alone a high dollar job. But, someone financed them through college, where they made all the right connections, and it is what it is.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Fluffeh on Thursday October 08 2015, @02:00AM
I wouldn't have gone so far as to say that a bad boss will "inspire" their workers to mess with customers, but if your boss is being a dick, chances are your patience will be much shorter with another rude customer. Shit always gets passed downhill. The employee can't take it out on their boss, so they take it down on the next level below them - the customer on the other end of the phone. The article really seems a "Duhh...." read :)
(Score: 2) by krishnoid on Thursday October 08 2015, @04:47AM
That effect might be measurable [nytimes.com] (see section on 'ego depletion'), or at least trackable.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Thursday October 08 2015, @02:23AM
for example, at the bank the teller told me I needed two forms of government-issued photo ID to cash my paycheck. At first I was furious but then:
"I'm not mad at you, I'm mad at whoever instituted that policy."
It's important that our anger not be misdirected; properly-directed anger can create meaningful change but misdirected anger is impotent. Impotent anger just makes that anger worse.
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 2) by jasassin on Thursday October 08 2015, @10:35PM
I ran into something similar. Tried to cash a personal cheque at the persons own bank (Wells Fargo) and the lady wanted two forms of ID and a credit card. Holy shit did I flip my fucking lid. I took out my drivers license, my social security card and my original birth certificate and the bitch still wanted a credit card. I don't have a credit card, I told the lady if she didn't cash my cheque I was calling the cops (I was royally pissed at this point) she got her manager over and, after finger printing me, she cashed the cheque. Fuck Wells Fargo.
I'm curious what two forms of government issued photo I'd you could use. Drivers license and passport are two I can think of, but passports are expensive. What else could you use, or I should ask what did you use?
jasassin@gmail.com GPG Key ID: 0xE6462C68A9A3DB5A
(Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Friday October 09 2015, @04:46AM
verified the amount of the check, and that it was made out to me.
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 2) by Anal Pumpernickel on Tuesday October 13 2015, @02:09AM
If you let them have your fingerprint, you're just a fool.
(Score: 2) by jasassin on Thursday October 15 2015, @01:13AM
Why? The cops have it already anyway.
jasassin@gmail.com GPG Key ID: 0xE6462C68A9A3DB5A
(Score: 2) by Anal Pumpernickel on Thursday October 15 2015, @08:26PM
Well, they don't have mine. Where do you live where the cops have everyone's fingerprints? And even if it were true, how would that justify handing over your information on a silver platter? "Hey everyone, this situation is bad, so let's make it even worse!"
(Score: 2) by jasassin on Thursday October 15 2015, @10:00PM
USA. I've been arrested, finger printing is SOP (I was acquitted). Besides, they have programs where the cops go around to grade schools and give kids a T-shirt for their finger prints. The little kids don't know any better.
jasassin@gmail.com GPG Key ID: 0xE6462C68A9A3DB5A
(Score: 2) by Anal Pumpernickel on Friday October 16 2015, @02:46AM
I hadn't heard about those programs. Those should be illegal. Still, that is no reason to make the problem worse.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Runaway1956 on Thursday October 08 2015, @02:58AM
It's been documented, time and time again, that poor leaders "inspire" all sorts of poor behaviour on the part of those they lead. A lifetime ago, when I wore a uniform, the Navy took pains to get rid of poor leaders. Or, more accurately, to demote poor leaders into positions where they could cause no harm, or less harm.
Most poor leaders simply fail to get the results from their troops that are expected. They are marked "ineffective" leaders, and asked to resign, or shuffled off into unimportant positions. The worst leaders are sometimes court martialed, and forced out of the military.
We see the same sort of thing in industry, the business world, and yes, in IT.
Unfortunately, the majority of upper management lacks the metrics with which to measure good leaders and bad. An organization structured around nepotism will never understand the concept of leadership, and is therefore incapable of rewarding good leadership, or punishing poor leadership.
Leadership and management are rapidly becoming lost arts. Instead of leadership, we have a myriad of policies, designed to aid the incompetent in making decisions. It is assumed that any idiot can read through a sheaf of papers with policies written on them to justify his actions. Give an idiot enough policies, and he'll be able to justify anything he wants to justify.
Who here is actually happy, and willing to put in an honest day's work, when some moron of a boss is on your ass all day, every day? Despited the fact that you actually like the work you do, that boss destroys any satisfaction you might have taken in a job well done. Especially when he takes credit for everything done right, and blames you for everything that goes wrong.
Been there, done that. And, I'm about to walk away from a job like that, in the very near future. I'd rather work a low tech menial job, than to put up with that shit for another five or ten years.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by hemocyanin on Thursday October 08 2015, @03:39AM
You might find this darkly amusing: Despair, Inc. - The Art of Demotivation: "Principles of Storytelling" [youtube.com]
(Score: 2) by GungnirSniper on Thursday October 08 2015, @03:05AM
Technical Support is the place where everything that rolls downhill lands.
Did our outsourced rebate scam company decline a valid submission again?
Did the cost-cutting in QA let a Windows-installation-destroying bug though?
Did Marketing make extravagant promises about toolbar protection when it lets today's Bonzi Buddy through?
Did the overpaid and underknowledgable tools in Sales guaranteeing the product could do something it absolutely cannot?
Did our outsourced chat help for the eStore sell both the anti-virus and Internet security products to a customer?
Did our jackasses in bean-counting require boxed copy refunds take 12 weeks so we could make a few pennies of interest on the money?
All of that crap hits Support first before anywhere else.
I wish I had the balls to transfer just a few of those customers to the people who actually make those shitty decisions.
Tips for better submissions to help our site grow. [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 1, Redundant) by b on Thursday October 08 2015, @04:02AM
Correlation != causation.
(Score: 4, Informative) by toygeek on Thursday October 08 2015, @04:12AM
I worked in a front line role for several years, even though I had much higher responsibility. The cons of working in a small shop. One particular customer was, quite frankly, stark raving mad. Probably schizophrenic. Was accusing us of changing his website contents by "moving a table over" or some crap. Was always rude and just overall unpleasant. I handled him without trouble most of the time.
Enter new boss.
Micromanaging ADD Jerk who took down all our partitions and then phone yelled all day. Had to wear earplugs. Here comes the lunatic on the phones, finally accuses me of being in cahoots with my jackass boss. I yelled expletives at the guy and hung up the phone. I've never done that, not before or since. Stresses of work had a *lot* to do with that. And yes, I left that job.
There is no Sig. Okay, maybe a short one. http://miscdotgeek.com
(Score: 2) by krishnoid on Thursday October 08 2015, @04:43AM
Too bad you couldn't transfer the customer to the boss. That's the stuff of which sitcoms are made.
(Score: 2) by toygeek on Thursday October 08 2015, @05:01AM
Ironically, the boss was sitting 10 feet away from me listening to the call. He was a real jackass, the kind who laughed at peoples plight and gave a new task every 5 minutes and then checked on the one he gave you 30 minutes before, as if he'd not reassigned you 5 times since then.
There is no Sig. Okay, maybe a short one. http://miscdotgeek.com
(Score: 1) by anubi on Thursday October 08 2015, @06:24AM
Those kind of bosses excel in converting workers into welfare recipients.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 2) by toygeek on Thursday October 08 2015, @07:16AM
You aren't kidding. I quit that job, went to work for people who turned out to be slightly nuts, and got fired there (I was subbing for a family member they *fired* and then made up with. when they came back, I had to go) and then got a fun but horrid paying job (this was right after the crash in 2008) and ended up on food stamps to feed my kids. Fun times.
There is no Sig. Okay, maybe a short one. http://miscdotgeek.com
(Score: 4, Funny) by wonkey_monkey on Thursday October 08 2015, @07:27AM
Blackadder: It is the way of the world, Baldrick. The abused always kick downwards. I am annoyed, and so I kick the cat, the cat [loud squeak] pounces on the mouse, and finally, the mouse--
Baldrick: Argh!
Blackadder:
--bites you on the behind.
systemd is Roko's Basilisk
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 08 2015, @12:55PM
I hereby protest against the cardinal direction discrimination! :-)
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Thursday October 08 2015, @02:41PM
Stop being so suborbital.
(Score: 2) by VanessaE on Friday October 09 2015, @04:41AM
I'll just leave these here:
http://notalwaysworking.com/ [notalwaysworking.com]
http://notalwaysright.com/ [notalwaysright.com]
(For those who aren't familiar, the first is for stories about stupid/bad employees and employers, the second covers customers)