ckaihatsu
8th November 2013, 20:58
[LaborTech] One out of two Korean workers is an emotional laborer "Role-play began at 9 pm, after the shutters went down at the Samsung Electronics service center."
http://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_national/610385.html
[Special series part I] One out of two Korean workers is an emotional laborer
Posted on : Nov.8,2013 09:47 KSTModified on : Nov.8,2013 10:02 KST
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http://img.hani.co.kr/imgdb/resize/2013/1109/138387154249_20131109.JPG
This cartoon depicts a service worker who only received a customer rating of satisfactory and has to go in front of what the workers called peoples court to engage in after-work self-reflection late at night.
Workers in service areas more commonly suffer from emotional deprivation, trauma, and numbness
By Nam Eun-joo and Lim Ji-sun, staff reporters
The company referred to it as role play; the employees called it peoples court.
Role-play began at 9 pm, after the shutters went down at the Samsung Electronics service center. One person played the role of a service technician; the other was the customer. They acted out a service interaction that hadnt gone as planned.
Brrrring, someone said, imitating the sound of a phone ringing.
Im standing right in front of your apartment now, sir, the technician said. Is it okay if I come in?
The reason the technician had to repeat the visit was because he got a below average review on Happy Call, which provides feedback on customer satisfaction with the service they received. Even when just one person received a low rating, everyone on the team - 12 or 13 people - had to stay late.
The technicians coworkers had now been working for more than 12 hours, having clocked in at 8 am. It was hard to keep their irritation and fatigue from showing on their faces. They knew that each one of them would be in the hot seat at one point, but that didnt stop them from making nasty remarks.
Seriously, you should have begged for a higher rating. How could you get such a low score? one technician said angrily.
Role-plays like this usually went on until 11 pm. After finishing an installation or repair job, technicians asked customers to give a generous response if they were contacted by Happy Call. The customers probably had no idea how important this request was to technicians.
Samsung Electronics service centers generally use Happy Call twenty times a month to check on each technician. When customers are very dissatisfied, the technician gets 1 point; when they are very satisfied, they get 10 points.
Various employees at service centers said that, if they get 8 points, they have to write an action plan explaining how they plan to improve their service in the future.
If they get five points, employees said, they have to prepare themselves for going on trial at peoples court.
For the most part, such activities - which the company refers to as a customer service role plays - were discontinued without any explanation when the Korean Metal Workers Union opened its Samsung Electronics Service chapter. But the custom of having employees write action plans is still in place.
At one service center in South Gyeongsang Province, employees have to read their action plans in front of all of the employees at the morning meeting and engage in self-criticism.
Reporters found that compulsory hikes also took place at several service centers under the guise of moral education.
When someone had a low rating, their whole team was forced to go hiking early in the morning, one technician working in South Chungcheong Province recalled. They had to climb the mountain and take a photo at the top.
At a service center in Ulsan, there was a separate role-play room with various cameras set up inside. While several employees reenacted a scene inside the room, the others watched on camera from outside.
It always made me feel pathetic and terrible, said Jeong Sang-ho (34, not his real name). The room is still there, and Im still afraid of it.
Samsung Electronics said on Oct. 30 that it had confirmed that role-play activities took place at certain centers but that they were not part of company policy. Repair technicians have to be capable of completing their assigned tasks, but they are also always being rated by customers for how friendly they are.
They are emotional laborers who have to stay in control of their emotions while working. Emotional laborers suffer from a variety of psychological conditions, including emotional deprivation, trauma, and numbness.
These conditions were found in workers interviewed by Hankyoreh reporters and in workers who attended counseling sessions organized by Mind Prism, a company that specializes in psychological healing.
Mind Prism (CEO Jeong Hye-shin) is currently carrying out the Employee Mental Health Campaign, now in its third session. The campaign involves group counseling sessions for emotional laborers in various occupational groupings.
According to an estimate by the Wonjin Institute for Occupational and Environmental Health (WIOEH) at Green Hospital, as of 2012, 12.67 million people were working in occupational groups that are classified as emotional labor, including wholesale and retail outlets, the hotel and food industries, education, and service.
This amounts to 51.6% of the total 24.68 million people working in Korea.
Today, one out of every two people with a job in Korea are emotional laborers and their psychological health is getting worse.
Please direct questions or comments to [[email protected]]
original
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[Special series part II] Emotional laborers suf...
2012 The Hankyoreh Media Company. All rights reserved.
No part of this material may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted
in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, mimeographical, in recorded form or
otherwise for commercial use, without the permission of the Hankyoreh Media Company.
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http://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_national/610385.html
[Special series part I] One out of two Korean workers is an emotional laborer
Posted on : Nov.8,2013 09:47 KSTModified on : Nov.8,2013 10:02 KST
facebook14twitter6
http://img.hani.co.kr/imgdb/resize/2013/1109/138387154249_20131109.JPG
This cartoon depicts a service worker who only received a customer rating of satisfactory and has to go in front of what the workers called peoples court to engage in after-work self-reflection late at night.
Workers in service areas more commonly suffer from emotional deprivation, trauma, and numbness
By Nam Eun-joo and Lim Ji-sun, staff reporters
The company referred to it as role play; the employees called it peoples court.
Role-play began at 9 pm, after the shutters went down at the Samsung Electronics service center. One person played the role of a service technician; the other was the customer. They acted out a service interaction that hadnt gone as planned.
Brrrring, someone said, imitating the sound of a phone ringing.
Im standing right in front of your apartment now, sir, the technician said. Is it okay if I come in?
The reason the technician had to repeat the visit was because he got a below average review on Happy Call, which provides feedback on customer satisfaction with the service they received. Even when just one person received a low rating, everyone on the team - 12 or 13 people - had to stay late.
The technicians coworkers had now been working for more than 12 hours, having clocked in at 8 am. It was hard to keep their irritation and fatigue from showing on their faces. They knew that each one of them would be in the hot seat at one point, but that didnt stop them from making nasty remarks.
Seriously, you should have begged for a higher rating. How could you get such a low score? one technician said angrily.
Role-plays like this usually went on until 11 pm. After finishing an installation or repair job, technicians asked customers to give a generous response if they were contacted by Happy Call. The customers probably had no idea how important this request was to technicians.
Samsung Electronics service centers generally use Happy Call twenty times a month to check on each technician. When customers are very dissatisfied, the technician gets 1 point; when they are very satisfied, they get 10 points.
Various employees at service centers said that, if they get 8 points, they have to write an action plan explaining how they plan to improve their service in the future.
If they get five points, employees said, they have to prepare themselves for going on trial at peoples court.
For the most part, such activities - which the company refers to as a customer service role plays - were discontinued without any explanation when the Korean Metal Workers Union opened its Samsung Electronics Service chapter. But the custom of having employees write action plans is still in place.
At one service center in South Gyeongsang Province, employees have to read their action plans in front of all of the employees at the morning meeting and engage in self-criticism.
Reporters found that compulsory hikes also took place at several service centers under the guise of moral education.
When someone had a low rating, their whole team was forced to go hiking early in the morning, one technician working in South Chungcheong Province recalled. They had to climb the mountain and take a photo at the top.
At a service center in Ulsan, there was a separate role-play room with various cameras set up inside. While several employees reenacted a scene inside the room, the others watched on camera from outside.
It always made me feel pathetic and terrible, said Jeong Sang-ho (34, not his real name). The room is still there, and Im still afraid of it.
Samsung Electronics said on Oct. 30 that it had confirmed that role-play activities took place at certain centers but that they were not part of company policy. Repair technicians have to be capable of completing their assigned tasks, but they are also always being rated by customers for how friendly they are.
They are emotional laborers who have to stay in control of their emotions while working. Emotional laborers suffer from a variety of psychological conditions, including emotional deprivation, trauma, and numbness.
These conditions were found in workers interviewed by Hankyoreh reporters and in workers who attended counseling sessions organized by Mind Prism, a company that specializes in psychological healing.
Mind Prism (CEO Jeong Hye-shin) is currently carrying out the Employee Mental Health Campaign, now in its third session. The campaign involves group counseling sessions for emotional laborers in various occupational groupings.
According to an estimate by the Wonjin Institute for Occupational and Environmental Health (WIOEH) at Green Hospital, as of 2012, 12.67 million people were working in occupational groups that are classified as emotional labor, including wholesale and retail outlets, the hotel and food industries, education, and service.
This amounts to 51.6% of the total 24.68 million people working in Korea.
Today, one out of every two people with a job in Korea are emotional laborers and their psychological health is getting worse.
Please direct questions or comments to [[email protected]]
original
related stories
[Special series part III] The most annoying cus...
[Special series part II] Emotional laborers suf...
2012 The Hankyoreh Media Company. All rights reserved.
No part of this material may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted
in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, mimeographical, in recorded form or
otherwise for commercial use, without the permission of the Hankyoreh Media Company.
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