No matter how innocent, being touchy-feely with work colleagues could be a sure-fire way to get the sack – but not at one high street chain, it seems.
Workers at Pret a Manger are positively encouraged to be tactile with each other while on the job – it says so in the company’s ’emotional labour’ rules.
Being ‘moody or bad tempered’ is understandably frowned upon by the sandwich shop chain.
Its chief executive, Clive Schee, said: ‘The first thing I look at is whether the staff are touching each other.
‘Are they smiling, reacting to each other, happy, engaged? I can almost predict sales on body language alone.’
If staff – most of whom earn the minimum wage – get a positive report from a mystery shopper the whole team gets a bonus.
But should a judge encounter an employee who is ‘just there for the money’, everyone misses out.
Details of the ‘Pret Perfect Worker’ guidelines emerged online after an essay in the London Review of Books detailed the chain’s enforced ‘culture of happiness’.
A Pret a Manger spokesman said they were for ‘internal use only’, though they have previously been posted on the company website.
‘The idea is not only are you selling a lunch or coffee, you are helping people have a positive experience,’ he said.
Meanwhile, the chain – which has 350 shops across Britain – withdrew its range of ‘Virgin Mary’ crisps from sale over the weekend after complaints from religious groups.
It said it had ‘noted the strength of feeling’ about the product – based on a Bloody Mary cocktail – and donated unsold crisps to charities for the homeless.
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