In this episode of the "Chronicles from a Caribbean Cubicle" podcast, the host reflects on an article originally published in the Jamaica Gleaner titled “How to Help Employees Exert Emotional Labor.” The monologue contrasts scripted, performance‑driven service interactions common in the United States with the spontaneous, relationship‑building encounters experienced by visitors to Jamaica. The speaker argues that many organizations train frontline staff to fake empathy rather than to create genuine human connection, and that this fakery stems from inadequate onboarding, lack of ongoing coaching, and a corporate culture that neither permits nor rewards authentic emotional labor. Three core ideas are presented: (1) “Faking isn’t creating” – frontline workers need deeper training to recognize and express real emotions, especially in difficult transactions; (2) Emotional labor is a skill that can be taught, but companies often avoid the cost of proper hiring, onboarding, counseling, and continuous coaching; (3) Identifying “moments” when a customer most needs a human connection is crucial for building lasting loyalty, and employees must be equipped—and emotionally healed—to spot and act on those moments. The host stresses that managers must invest in counseling and trauma‑informed support for staff, many of whom come from low‑pay, hardship‑laden backgrounds, so they can safely deliver authentic emotional labor. When done correctly, such labor creates deep, cross‑cultural loyalty that benefits both customers and the organization.
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Hello and welcome back to Chronicles from a Caribbean Cubicle podcast. Here's an article written for the Jamaica Gleaner. It's entitled "How to Help Employees Exert Emotional Labor." The challenge that organizations have is that they haven't trained, rewarded, or permitted their frontline employees to exert emotional labor. "Create human connection when it's most needed." Seth Godin. Now and then I come across a quote which makes me stop and think. Here's why this one brought the local customer service experience to mind. Most Jamaicans who travel to the United States are struck by how well-trained service workers are. At first blush, it appears that they really know how to smile, be polite, and seem interested. However, those who end up staying to live in North America tell a different tale. They recall a discovery: 5 minutes after a seemingly meaningful interaction, the provider can't remember your face or name. It was all an act. Where it comes from is obvious. Those who have peeked behind the scenes say it's the result of thorough training, tightly coupled with swift, harsh consequences for non-compliance. It gets the right action, but does it produce genuine feelings? Contrast that situation with the experience of those who visit Jamaica repeatedly for several years, making lifelong friendships which start with chance encounters on the beach, village, or bus. Those extraordinary, unscripted stories end up bonding entire families from different cultures. Sometimes they even cross generations in spite of the geographic distance. How can these two contrasting experiences be reconciled by you, a manager who must develop staff to serve local customers? Godin's quote offers a few clues. Number 1: Faking isn't creating. I suspect that frontline workers in the U.S. have been trained to fake human connection on demand. To go through the motions, following a set of actions they have memorized and practiced. Unfortunately, they also haven't learned to separate true emotion from fakery. How to get past this obstacle? If you believe that your frontline workers are acting the part but not actually creating authentic experiences, they may need deeper training. Noticing real emotions in the middle of a transaction isn't easy, especially when the customer is upset? Most of us can't. It takes a kind of emotional maturity few possess. 2. Doing feeling work. However, when we bump into someone who can regularly provide this experience in the worst of circumstances, we tend to think of their emotional maturity as a rare gift or talent. Unfortunately, this explanation puts them up on a pedestal far beyond the reach of the unlucky majority. Gordon implies that this thinking is false. Emotional labor is really what's missing, he explained. It's a trained effort most companies' leaders just can't be bothered to develop. The expense is too high. Their lack of care begins with haphazard hiring and continues with nonexistent onboarding. Employees who receive this basic training are left to their own devices. Never given the tools to produce emotional results. Then, when problems occur, most managers simply blame the employee. They fail to accept responsibility. But Godin goes further. He hints that many companies don't even, quote, "permit," unquote, their frontline employees to provide emotional labor. They actually make it hard. Have you ever received a quiet act of kindness from an employee who put themselves in harm's way to make an exception in your case. That's someone who is working around the limits implemented by a blind, callous leadership. Number 3: Identifying moments. These subversives are not only brave but wise. They can tell when a human connection is most needed and act decisively to provide it. But they aren't just interesting. These moments are extraordinary opportunities to create lasting loyalty. Perhaps they explain why these tourists return to visit their newfound family in Jamaica. Their initial link was so positive and so unexpectedly real that they end up feeling closer to a Jamaican frontline worker than their actual neighbors or office colleagues. Can workers be trained to identify these key moments in a customer's experience? They can, but if your employees have childhoods pockmarked with trauma, it's much harder to do so. Unfortunately, given the low pay of our service providers, many have experienced such hardships and won't get over them on their own. If management steps in and provides the counseling, training, and coaching needed to move past these obstacles, everyone benefits. The fact is, employees who are being trained to emotionally labor on behalf of customers who need a human connection need to deal with their own wounds first. This puts them in the driver's seat, able to respond to the customer without their history getting in the way. Now they can deliberately create the kind of deep loyalty customers enjoy but rarely experience. It's emotional labor which benefits everyone.
