Box 4.4 talks about organizational vocabulary and how waitresses at a neighborhood bar developed their own categories to describe their customers. Obviously this affects how they treat certain customers; for example, a regular would probably get better overall service than the obnoxo. I think people in almost all organizations develop their own informal vocabulary. I know at work we have our own informal vocabulary to describe certain people, certain situations, etc. I think this special vocabulary makes it easier to deal with some of the difficult situations or people that we encounter at work. I often deal with difficult people and it's frustrating , but I can just laugh it off with my co-workers later on. I'm sure when a waitress deals with an obnoxo or pig it's unpleasant, but at least they can connect with other waitresses and laugh about it. So in some ways this is good and it brings employees together by giving them something common to discuss. In other ways it's probably not a good thing because this vocabulary can also affect the way in which we deal with these people or provide service, etc. This vocabulary also affects our attitudes and changes how we think and becomes a part of how we do our job.
1 comment:
In my own experience, there are no specific categorical terms used at work. However, there is a certain terminology used to reduce the transactions with unsavory customers to symbols or "signposts." The transaction process is truncated in order to accomodate a type of sifting process. Certain stories of working with customers will begin to resemble previous stories, and so the story is reduced to commonalities. In that way there are a number of types of customers that are discussed frequently, and the types are generally understood without much explanation.
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