coercion

[bzbbaba]

Beverly says (coming out of her lurking status):

Employers do coerce their employees to say certain things.  My 
husband works at a warehouse type store and has to answer the phone 
with, "We're having a great day here at (name of store), my name is 
(John) how may I help you."  I have called up a couple of times, 
heard him say it and just about want to barf.  The managers are 
kidding themselves if ANY customer thinks the employees are having a 
great day.  

So coercing the employees to say a certain greeting around the 
holidays is management trying to placate customers and find a middle 
of the road answer to a puzzling question:  "When our stores are 
decked out in decorations (because we have customers who come in 
droves to buy them--even in August) of a certain quasi-religious 
holiday, what do we say to them during this season?"

Interestingly enough, during Ramadan my husband tried to give an Arab 
customer (he knew he was Arabic; he wasn't trying to profile him) an 
Arabic greeting ("Al salaam alikum").  When the customer asked my 
husband "Are you Muslim?" and my husband said that he wasn't, the 
customer told him he should not be giving the greeting.  This 
customer refuses to say anything in Arabic now to my husband, who had 
been on friendlier terms with him before and conversed a bit with him 
in Arabic.

Which makes me wonder if Christmas had not been overtaken by secular 
commercial interests and wasn't the mega-holiday it is now would we 
even be having this conversation???  Probably not.

Beverly (who thinks that people are constantly evolving socially and 
that eventually we will be able to say to each other, "Live and let 
live" without getting our knickers in a twist)