A recent study completed by German scientists shows that long-term harm results from forced, or insincere, cordiality by employees who constantly deal with insult on the job. In a controlled experiment, 4000 people were put to work in a fake call center and split into two groups. As the insults and abusive treatment poured in over the phones, half were required to adhere to a policy of professional cordiality which skirts the abusive treatment of callers and remains courteous. The other half were allowed to alternately change their professional focus and to respond in kind to abusive callers.
While those in the unfettered group experienced a temporary increase in heart rate, the group that was locked into courtesy protocol suffered long term symptoms form accumulated stress. As Dieter Zapf of Johann Wolfgang Goethe University put it: “Every time a person is forced to repress his true feelings there are negative consequences. We are all able to rein in our emotions but it becomes difficult to do this over a protracted period.”1 In a world where employees are increasingly forced to tolerate the bizarre and the perverse, negative effects on health will be on the rise. There is, however, a third group that was not represented in the study.
There are those who look beyond the personality and remain conscious of the forces behind good and evil. These will not be too easily ruffled by the fleshly tablets of behavior before them. They will not be quick to fall prey to a wrestling match with flesh and blood, nor will their weapons of warfare be comprised of witty banter and traded barbs. They will speak the truth in love, and take heart in their enthusiasm to win the lost: to open the prison house and let the captives free. Their heart will burn in their chest as they take opportunities to share the gospel in a dying world, and for that obedience, whereby they shall endure tribulations, they will experience a peace that surpasses an ordinary understanding. To your health.
Notes:
1. “Scientist: Smiling can hurt your health,” United Press International, May 16, 2008.
http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/Top_News/2008/05/16
/scientist_smiling_can_hurt_your_health/2772/
