Racialized and Classed Contexts: Shifting Audiences and Changes in Emotional Labor Among Restaurant Servers

Abstract

This ethnographic study examines the importance of context in the emotional labor of restaurant servers. While the emotional labor of workers in the service industry has been studied extensively, little attention has been paid to the differing audiences and demands of restaurant servers in the front-and backstages and the ways these spaces and performances are racialized and classed. Relying on organizational materials, faceto-face interviews, and participant observation conducted from September through December 2013, this article addresses this gap. Findings indicate that the emotional labor that servers engage in the frontstage is processed in backstage spaces where servers interact out of earshot of customers. In this space, servers mitigate the stress associated with the emotional labor demands from the frontstage by relying on racialized and classed discourse about their customers, processes that may, in turn, contribute to the reproduction of social hierarchies.

Racial Prejudices, Racialized Workplaces, and Restaurant Servers’ Hyperbolic Perceptions of Black–White Tipping Differences

“…On one hand, studies were done to explicate the link between severs’ perceptions of interracial tipping differences and discriminate service delivery. This downstream approach has produced further evidence, indicating that many servers, at least sometimes, withhold effort from their Black clientele because they are thought to be poor tippers (e.g., Billingsley, 2016; Brewster, 2012a; Brewster, Brauer, & Lynn, 2015; Kim, Bae, & Kim, 2017; although see Hall, 2017). Complementing these studies are those that have aimed to explain the underlying causes of the observed interracial differences in tipping practices.…”

“…In addition to racial prejudice, exaggerated perceptions of Black–White tipping differences are predicted to stem from the racialized nature of many restaurant workplaces—what Dirks and Rice (2004) referred to as a “culture of White servers.” Such workplace cultures are characterized by high levels of anti-Black server discourse (e.g., coded language, e.g., Canadian, cousins, moolies, blacktops, White people, Mondays) and observed mistreatment of Black clientele (Billingsley, 2016; Brewster, 2012b; Brewster & Rusche, 2017). As a result of anti-Black sentiments being discursively spread throughout restaurant workplaces, servers in such environments are posited to develop and internalize stereotypes depicting Black customers are undesirable vis-à-vis White customers because these customers are routinely portrayed in such environments as being exceptionally poor tippers.…”

Racialized Workplaces, Contemporary Racial Attitudes, and Stereotype Endorsement: A Recipe for Consumer Racial Profiling

“…In recognition that racial stereotypes are acquired directly or indirectly through socialization processes, we also identify the racialized nature of many restaurant workplaces as a contextual factor underpinning servers’ endorsement of anti-black stereotypes and racial profiling predilections. Restaurant workplaces have been characterized as environments wherein racist discourse and observed mistreatment of black customers is common (Billingsley 2016; Brewster and Wang 2020; Dirks and Rice 2004). Furthermore, observing coworker/managers utilizing racist language in the workplace (e.g., discursively spreading anti-black stereotypes) has been shown to be positively associated with server-reported racial profiling (e.g., using race to inform service quality), even among servers who themselves refrain from participating in the discursive spreading of racial stereotypes in their workplaces (Brewster and Rusche 2017).…”

Morality at Work: Do Employees’ Moral Commitments Inhibit Service Disparities and Reactive Workplace Behaviors?

“…Brewster and Wills 2013; Deshotels and Forsyth 2006; Ogbonna and Harris 2002). Furthermore, in industries where service providers are economically dependent on customers’ provisions of tips, employees will often emotionally react by venting about a client who has left or is expected to leave an inadequate tip (Billingsley 2016; Gatta 2002; Sallaz 2002). Likewise, while frontline service employees will rarely openly disregard organizational edicts by blatantly disrespecting their customers, it does happen and, like workplace venting, such incidents are often emotionally reactive responses to an inadequate gratuity left at the end of the service encounter (Mulinari 2016; Sallaz 2002; Thompson 2015).…”

“…Similarly, we examine whether servers with strong MCSE are less likely to engage in workplace venting and to disrespect restaurant patrons. These behaviors often reflect emotionally reactive responses to common workplace frustrations such as expecting or receiving a poor tip (see Billingsley 2016; Paules 1991). However, they also represent disparate reactions to clientele that potentially threaten the provision of quality service and, as such, should be inhibited by strong internalized moral commitments to treat clients equally.…”