Photos: kali9/iStockphoto; Geber86/iStockphoto; Juanmonino/iStockphoto; Fly View Productions/iStockphoto Earlier this year, many employers in retail and hospitality – as well as those in other industries whose workers deal directly with customers – eased or lifted requirements for masking and physical distancing. The move, based on updated federal guidance for preventing the spread of COVID-19, created anticipation among customers for a return to normalcy. For the workers who assist them, however, pre-pandemic life may not be so close at hand. As some experts see it, the immediate future for workers in customer-facing industries still includes the risk of stress and anxiety stemming from interactions with hostile patrons. “I don’t think it’s going to go away,” said Brian Mayer, a sociology professor at the University of Arizona and lead author of a recent study exploring pandemic-related stress among grocery store workers. “I think people are still readjusting to the world in terms of limited labor, limited access to goods, and so customers are still going to be stressed.” Although on-the-job stress can pose a safety hazard in occupations that don’t revolve around interaction with the public, Alicia Grandey, a professor of industrial- organizational psychology at Pennsylvania State University, believes workers employed in customer-facing industries take on an added layer of worry. “This is a really critical problem that our frontline workers are facing,” Grandey said, “and it just adds to the distress they have been facing for a long time.” ‘The customer is not always right’ Before the pandemic, many public-facing workplaces subscribed to the credo, “The customer is always right,” said Grandey, whose research includes the areas of workplace mistreatment and emotional labor. PSU researchers define emotional labor as “managing emotions during interactions to achieve professional goals and conform to work role requirements.” To Grandey, COVID-19 shifted the practicality of workers deferring to customers regardless of treatment. For one, the pandemic accelerated job insecurity amid the lost hours and pay that accompanied the lockdown phase during the spring of 2020. Then, upon returning to jobs that already carried a heightened Grandey Mayer By Kevin Druley, associate editor When customers get hostile HELP WORKERS STAY SAFE Reprinted from Safety+Health, Vol. 205, No. 6 • ©2022 National Safety Council D R I V E 12
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