Service with a (Voluntary) Smile: Relational Service Games and Fast-Food Workers’ Consent to Interactive Service Work

• In Event: 20402 - Worker Resistance in New Fields of Activism

Abstract

This study explores why fast-food workers voluntarily engage in friendly customer service, despite the absence of formal requirements. Prior research has predominantly focused on coercive control strategies employed by employers to enforce a "service with a smile" ethos (Garson 1988; Leidner 1993; Ritzer 1983). However, this study argues that within these constraints, workers often deviate from formal protocols, introducing spontaneity and improvisation into their interactions (Leidner 1993; Newman 2000; Tannock 2001). Drawing on labor process theory and economic sociology, I develop a framework to understand when and why workers at Speedy Cantina, a mid-sized fast-food chain, provide exceptional, authentic customer service.

Through a workplace ethnography encompassing participant observation and 35 semi-structured interviews, I find that many workers view customer interactions as enjoyable, engaging in what I term “relational service games.” These games involve strategic actions, such as offering small favors or addressing grievances, to elicit positive responses from customers. Success in these interactions allows workers to reshape their identities from subordinates to skilled service providers, transforming transactional exchanges into moral engagements characterized by reciprocity.

While the study reveals that workers often find satisfaction in these interactions, it also highlights instances where customers fail to reciprocate. Despite these challenges, workers typically attribute negative experiences to individual customer behaviors rather than questioning the broader structural inequalities inherent in fast-food environments. By bridging labor process theory and economic sociology, this research complicates dominant narratives about emotional labor, revealing how even highly routinized service contexts can afford workers avenues for meaningful engagement, thus generating consent to their own exploitation.

Author

• Brian Serafini, University of Washington