Customer aggression has been a threat to hospitality employee safety and well-being long before COVID-19, but cases of aggression have been on the rise lately. Hospitality employees often find themselves explaining staffing shortages, product or service delays, and COVID-19 policies, and therefore bear the brunt of verbal and/or physical responses from some customers. The Targeted Research Training program is pleased to introduce a collection of resources on the topic of customer aggression.
En español:
¿Habla usted español? El Programa de Investigación Dirigida (TRT, por sus siglas en inglés) se dedica a proveer recursos para ayudar a los empleados en la industria de hospitalidad a navegar este momento difícil. A continuación, encontrará enlaces a recursos que pueden ayudarlo a lidiar con la agresión de los clients. El Programa TRT no ofrece ninguna garantía sobre la disponibilidad o idoneidad de esta información para su situación y cualquier acción que usted realice al consultar la información en este sitio web es estrictamente bajo su propio riesgo. La información contenida en estos sitios web no refleja necesariamente las opiniones del programa TRT ni de nuestra agencia de financiación, el Centro de Educación e Investigación Sunshine, o el Instituto Nacional de Seguridad y Salud Ocupacional. Estamos dedicados a proveer recursos para empleados de hospitalidad que no hablan inglés. Para cualquier recurso que no esté traducido en su fuente original, puede usar el navegador Google Chrome para traducir el material. Haga clic aquí para un video en español que muestra cómo usar el navegador Google Chrome para traducir material del inglés a otro idioma.
The following resources can help managers, supervisors, or leaders better understand and prevent worker mistreatment from customers or guests:
| Title | Source | Summary |
|---|---|---|
| Mistreatment by Customers | Dr. Paul Spector | This blog post discusses the effects of mistreatment by customers on workers. Includes lists of factors linked to mistreatment and actions organizations can take to address mistreatment and support employees who have experienced mistreatment from customers. |
| Guidance for the Prevention of Stress and Violence at the Workplace | International Labor Organization (ILO) | This guidance focuses on how stress and violence in the workplace affects workers and what can be done to eliminate or reduce workplace problems such as customer mistreatment. |
| Stop Office Bullying | American Psychological Association (APA) | This APA article focuses on ways that employers can reduce bullying and other aggressive behaviors among employees. While this resource focuses on mistreatment among employees, action items such as “identifying the root cause” of bullying and “fostering improved communication skills” can be used to address instances of guest mistreatment. |
| For Organizations (Policy, Interventions for Offenders, Training) | Workplace Bullying Institute | The Workplace Bullying Institute provides resources and guidance for both employees and organizations regarding bullying in the workplace. Organizational resources include evidence-based action steps focused on creating healthy workplace systems. While it focuses on employee-on-employee bullying, many of the resources may be useful for preventing and responding to guest mistreatment. |
| Workplace Harassment Training Resources | Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) | The Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) provides informational articles and training resources targeted at addressing harassment in the workplace. This includes advice on how to develop harassment prevention programs, which may be adjusted by hospitality organizations to target customer mistreatment.
*Some resources are only available to SHRM members |
| Violence at Work in Hotels, Catering and Tourism | International Labor Organization (ILO) | This ILO working paper focuses on identifying the causes of workplace violence in hospitality and describing related prevention, discussion, and management strategies. Importantly, it also includes a section on the under-reporting of violence and violent incidents in hospitality organizations. |
| Minding the Workplace: Need Help? | Minding the Workplace (The New Workplace Institute Blog) | The New Workplace Institute Blog is focused on education related to work and employee relations topics. In particular, the blog focuses on issues related to workplace bullying, mobbing, and abuse. The “Need Help” page contains guidance for employers related to preventing and addressing bullying in the workplace. |
| Occupational Violence Resources | National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) | NIOSH resources directed at addressing occupational violence. Includes publications and scientific articles focused on risk factors and outcomes of bullying as well as governmental and non-governmental violence resources. This resource focuses on employee-on-employee bullying, but may be useful for victims of guest mistreatment. |
| How to Minimize the Cost of Emotional Labor | Hospitality Net | An opinion piece focused on how hospitality organizations can minimize the effects of emotional labor, including employee burnout and emotional exhaustion. This article explores what organizations, leaders, and individual workers can do in response to emotional labor and customer-related stress. |
The following resources paint a picture of the pervasive nature of mistreatment of hospitality workers, particularly in recent times.
| Title | Source | Summary |
|---|---|---|
| Why All the Abuse of Servers, Flight Staffs, Sales Clerks as COVID Rules Ease? | The Harvard Gazette | This article discusses the recent rise in customer mistreatment incidents in the service industry. In particular, it contends that empowering employees and providing them with the tools to manage upset customers is essential for employee success. |
| Restaurants and Hotels Push Back Against the Uptick in Customer Tantrums | The Wall Street Journal | This article discusses the recent rise in poor customer behavior in the restaurant and hotel industry. In particular, it describes how the COVID-19 pandemic is related to increases in worker mistreatment by customers. |
| How the simple phrase ‘the customer is always right’ gave shoppers a license to abuse workers | Business Insider | This feature explores how the service industry’s “customer is always right” mantra has contributed to customer mistreatment/abuse of workers. |
The following resources provide recommendations for crafting a workplace environment that supports employee safety and health, including during customer interactions.
| Title | Source | Summary |
|---|---|---|
| Workplace Violence | Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) | A list of OSHA resources, including prevention programs focused on providing guidance for evaluating and controlling violence in the workplace. Additionally, this includes information on workers’ rights and ways to file health and safety complaints in the case of unsafe work conditions. |
| Safe and Healthy Working Environments Free from Violence and Harassment | International Labor Organization (ILO) | This guide utilizes occupational safety and health regulatory frameworks addressing violence and harassment to describe practices for developing healthy and safe working environments. |
| Dealing with Workplace Violence: A Guide for Agency Planners. | United States Office of Personnel Management | A government document related to forming organizational plans for addressing violence in the workplace. This resource is focused on the region of the United States and includes steps for developing violence prevention programs and directions for managing organizational recovery following a violent workplace incident. Although not focused on customer mistreatment, this resource can help with prevention and response to violent customer encounters. |
| Recommendations for Workplace Violence Prevention Programs in Late-Night Retail Establishments | Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) | This set of OSHA recommendations focuses on workplace violence prevention programs in late-night retail organizations. Although not focused on the service sector, many risk factors affecting workers in these organizations, for example, night shift work and isolated working conditions, are shared by service workers. Thus, many of these suggestions should be useful for developing prevention programs targeted at guest mistreatment. |
| Workplace Violence Program | Department of Labor (DOL) | This document describes the U.S. Department of Labor’s policies and programs regarding workplace violence within the DOL agency. This policy document may assist leaders in hospitality and tourism organizations to develop their own policies and programs about workplace violence, in particular identifying the related responsibilities of supervisors and managers and how to create a work environment that minimizes the prevalence and effects of violence. |
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For more questions about the Sunshine Education and Research Center and the Targeted Research Training Program, please contact Dr. Mindy Shoss at targetedresearch@ucf.edu.