Dear Customer, I Love You: Emotional Labor at South Korean Call Centers

One call center is bringing back its old greeting: “Dear customer, I love you.” The needlessly romantic phrase appeared in mid 2006, but was put to an end in little more than two years after accusations that forcing call center workers to address callers “with love” constituted “emotional labor.” Callers frequently responded with offensive comments along the lines of, “Sorry, I have a girlfriend,” or, “We can go out if you love me that much.” A telecom company decided to revive the tradition