As someone who has held a wide variety of jobs, I’ve become attuned to the ways work can wire our brains to specific behavior and mannerisms. Formerly I drove a taxi, and for years after I would still watch people alongside the road to see if they were flagging me down. Working in customer service has provided a counterpoint to the way we are already wired, as consumers, to interact with service-industry workers. It’s almost as if our society-mandated role as capital-c Customers renders us unable to see the people that make these transactions possible. Large companies are glossy, their images are highly calculated and curated, and we’ve been told their employees should fit this image too. I want Team Member to make people reconsider this, and the loss of individual identity that we willingly partake in.
As someone who has held a wide variety of jobs, I’ve become attuned to the ways work can wire our brains to specific behavior and mannerisms. Formerly I drove a taxi, and for years after I would still watch people alongside the road to see if they were flagging me down. Working in customer service has provided a counterpoint to the way we are already wired, as consumers, to interact with service-industry workers. It’s almost as if our society-mandated role as capital-c Customers renders us unable to see the people that make these transactions possible. Large companies are glossy, their images are highly calculated and curated, and we’ve been told their employees should fit this image too. I want Team Member to make people reconsider this, and the loss of individual identity that we willingly partake in.