After working a four-hour shift, Paul readied himself to leave his call centre station and go home.

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After working a four-hour shift, Paul readied himself to leave his call centre station and go home. As usual, he was thoroughly exhausted. He worked as a customer service representative for an online flower retailer. Customers who had problems with their orders would call in for help. Common issues he had to deal with were missed deliveries, delivery of the wrong flowers or flowers in poor condition, and billing errors.

Today had been an especially stressful day. He'd had two particularly difficult customers and it had been almost impossible to come up with a solution that would satisfy either of them. In one case some flowers had been sent to the wrong funeral home. The daughter of the deceased was very distressed that their mother's funeral had to proceed without the blooms. The other customer, a man, had sent red roses to two different womena surprisingly common occurrence. The cards, with their respective intimate messages, had been mixed up accidentally. That customer had yelled at Paul for "ruining his life" for almost five minutes before Paul could even get a word in to respond.

At the end of the day all he could do for either of them was offer a partial refund and a discount on their next purchase, which did not satisfy the customers at all and just led to more yelling and some name-calling before they hung up on him in frustration. Yes, it had definitely been a tough day. When Paul got on the bus to go home, he noticed that there was one seat left but a young woman next to it had left her backpack there. Normally Paul was a polite person, but today he was in no mood for nonsense. "Can't you see the bus is full," he snapped at her, "have a bit of common courtesy." The woman blushed, apologized quickly, and moved the bag. Paul immediately felt even worse and was trying to decide how best to word an apology but he ran out of time. She got off on the next stop.

He sighed and wondered what was wrong with him. Lately he always seemed to be in a bad mood after work. The customers were rude, often he couldn't really solve their problems in the way they wanted, his supervisor only cared about how many calls he answered per hour, and since he was on the phone all the time and worked short shifts with no formal breaks he never really got to know his colleagues. The only good thing about the job was the paycheque. If he could find another job, he would quit, but until then he was stuck.

How, he asked himself, can I make this job tolerable? And what can help me to manage these moods once I leave the office and head home?

Discussion Questions 1. explain the problem that Paul is facing. (2 points)

2. If this situation does not change, what consequences might there be for Paul's wellbeing and work performance? Explain answer. (3 points- ) 3. What might Paul do to help himself better deal with the emotional labour required for his job? You can refer to the lesson or further resources which you should cite in the answer. (2 points) 4. What might the employer do differently in this scenario to minimize the negative impact of emotional labour on their workers? (2 points)

5. "Our emotions need to be as educated as our intellect." Do you agree with this quote? Justify your answer. (1 point- )