Smile like you mean it

Is forced joy so surprising in our era of inauthenticity?

A friend is interviewing people who love their jobs; she noticed one thing they had in common was that they felt 'joy.’

I love this word - it was my grandmother’s name, so I’m biased - but I think it’s incomparable in communicating that big balloon of a feeling that rises in your chest, that lifting, lightening feeling in the everyday.

Anyway. I shouldn't have been so hasty. It seems joy is having a moment - but in the guise of 'Forced Joy' - the more cynical, Severance-style trend outlined by Beth Kowitt in her Bloomberg piece ‘Forced Joy’ Is a Miserable Corporate Trend.

The term originated with the jeweller Tiffany, and their team morale boosting tool, ‘Tiffany Joy.’ Elsewhere, Starbucks employees have been told to write cutesy slogans on customer's cups (Live Laugh Latte, anyone?). At the extreme end, Japanese employee's smiles are being rated and standardised by AI.

Service with a smile is hardly a new concept. So - where is the line between delivering a customer-centric service, and loading waaay too much emotional labour on your staff? (Instead of just - I don't know - creating an environment where they’re actually happy to be there?)

There are some interesting ideas in Bryan Robinson’s piece in Forbes, for instance;  “Neuroscience shows when we “force joy,” it stimulates the amygdala—the emotional brain center, which in turn releases neurotransmitters to encourage an emotionally positive state.”

So can companies demand our smiles, and ask us to manipulate our customer’s emotions, if it’s all for the greater good?  If the world is disintegrating into a shitheap of bad politics and climate destroying land-grabbing (not to mention literal war-waging land-grabbing) - is a bit of forced fun so bad? I will always pick the coffee shop with the best banter over the surly too-cool baristas, so isn’t this just giving us what we want?

I get that there’s a difference between serving up fake and authentic joy. But it feels like we collectively turned our back on authenticity a long time ago. Celebrities can sell any tatt to an audience that KNOW they don’t really make the gin, drink the protein shake, use the face serum. We still lap up influencers and their latest miracle cures, despite those big old sponsored content waivers. We haven’t known the difference between fake and real news in years. So is choosing to shop at, or work at, a company that peddles inauthentic joy such a big leap? I fear this is just the beginning of the forced joy party.