Job autonomy at work

Over Thanksgiving break I traveled to Cape Cod with one of my classes, and one of our days was spent in Provincetown, the tip of the Cape and the hot spot during the tourist season. In the off season thought, it's practically a ghost town. Nearly every shop is closed and the only people in town are those that live there. A few of us stopped in a coffee shop called "Joe" which was independently owned by, well, Joe. We walked in and there were only 4 or 5 customers, sitting at different tables, yet talking to each other across the room. It's easy to tell that in the off season, everyone knows everyone in Provincetown, and everyone is friends. A customer's dog was walking around the shop, and it was a very friendly atmosphere. Because Joe owns his own shop, there's no corporation telling him he has to smile and be courteous to customers, but he does realize that those help his business be successful. He was very friendly and genuine while dealing with us, and brightened up even more when one of my classmates said that he was a barista at Saints here in State College. They talked about coffee for a few minutes, and we all had a genuinely enjoyable service experience with Joe, leaving the shop with bigger drinks than we ordered and free cookies all around.

According to the findings in most of our studies, Joe could potentially be experiencing some negative effects of the emotional labor he's performing, so I asked him about it. He said that during the summer, his job is tough on him, and he welcomes the end of the day with open arms. because he often does get frustrated and burned out. He doesn't like dealing with tourists because nearly all of the time, they're who cause issues. In the off season however, he loves his job. He deals with his friends on a daily basis and work doesn't feel like work. He has service relationships with almost all of his customers, instead of the service encounters he deals with in the summer.

I think because of his complete job autonomy, Joe is able to lessen the negative effects of emotional labor. Chances are, if he encounters a rude tourist, he'll never see them again, and they won't even really have a chance to return to his shop anyway, so he doesn't see the point in going to ridiculous lengths to make them happy if they're being rude. He can basically act however he wants to those tourists, and if they're polite to him, he'll be polite back.

I think Joe and his situation show the positives of job autonomy. It leads to a better experience for no only the employee, as shown by Joe, but for the customer as well, which I can certainly vouch for. I would go back to Joe's without a doubt, and I think that customer loyalty is one of the main goals of emotional labor. So even though he's not required to follow any "service with a smile" rules, Joe is certainly doing his job right.