Retail Workers Complain - Music

Retail workers say holiday music is emotionally damaging: study

By Tamar Lapin 

Shutterstock

One-quarter of American retail workers say their holiday spirit is dying because they’re forced to listen to Christmas songs all day — with some saying it’s damaging their emotional well-being, according to a new study.

“Feeling less festive is a specific mental reaction to listening to Christmas music and rebelling against it, whereas the data showing it can have a negative effect on worker wellbeing must be treated with much more caution,” said Ola Sars, founder of Soundtrack Your Brand, a streaming service for background music, which conducted the study.

“In what can be a highly stressful job at this time of year, it’s important to consider whether a store’s soundtrack is actually increasing stress among its staff,” he added.

The company, which is partly owned by Spotify, surveyed more than 2,000 customers and retail staffers in the United States and United Kingdom about the tunes played during holiday shopping season.

Some retail workers, who are forced to listen to the jingles for up to six weeks a year, said a lack of variety in the songs affected them negatively.

A little over half of holiday shoppers in America said they actually adore the festive soundtrack while shopping, although 23 percent said they don’t want hear any of it before Dec. 1.

“Seeing as ‘repetition of songs’ is people’s biggest gripe when it comes to Christmas music, it’s unsurprising that shoppers have a more favorable view than workers,” Sars said.

“Shoppers can be in and out of a store within the hour, whereas workers have long shifts where oftentimes the same music is played on loop.”

One gripe specific to millennial shoppers was that joyous carols aren’t always in tune with a shop’s vibe.

“Younger people are much more attuned to when background music clashes with a store’s brand,” Sars said, suggesting shops play hip covers of old-time favorites.

He told The Post it was important for retailers to switch up their soundtracks to keep staffers and customers engaged, though, nodding to the ’90s holiday smash “All I Want For Christmas Is You,” he noted, “Christmas wouldn’t be the same without Mariah Carey blaring out of shop windows.”