Come on Dave, crack a smile
NATIONALISTS, however, have this month upped the ante. Today, Culture Secretary Fiona Hyslop kicks off with a chat show where she interviews the leaders of three of the festivals. At the book festival First Minister Nicola Sturgeon will host two events, while her predecessor Alex Salmond is booked for a whole season of shows at the Fringe.
Should we mock? After all, Mr Salmond has just announced that the whole run is sold out. Alex Salmond Unleashed offers banter and surprise guests. You can imagine the frisson to anyone leafing through the Fringe brochure: could those guests include Alex and a couple of hungry lions? Let’s
THE customer may always be right, but bosses who demand their employees provide service with a smile are stressing-out their workers.
This is the unremarkable conclusion of some new research, from the University of Well, Duh, in East London.
After all, who doesn’t felt the strain of looking cheerful when asked to work late, or entertain customers?
Come to that, who hasn’t felt their toothpaste smile falter when challenging circumstances arise: when you are having guests round, for instance, who produce a long list of food intolerances, or bring along a pet or relative who can’t be left home alone?
It could be more intriguing to investigate the psychological pressure of a job where smiles and good cheer are completely forbidden. Perfume models, I’m looking at you.
Surely if you’re trying to convince punters to spend £40 on a smell, the message should be ‘splash some cash and cheer yourself up’.
Yet whenever I slope through the make-up department of a store, I’m surrounded by adverts with big sullen pouts.
Does someone leave crumbs in David Gandy’s bed? When Kate Moss is photographed draped on a Caribbean beach, does it have to be downwind of a fish-gutting plant?
It is an astonishing act of professionalism to work for up to three hours a day in the sunshine, fussed over by stylists, certain of a salary of squillions while holding an expression that says ‘my in-laws have come to live with me’.