Have you ever been told to ‘just grin and bear it’?
Ranging from 0 (suicidal) to 100 (delirious), a machine rates the overall quality of smiles of around 500 or so employees of the Keihin Electric Express Railway Company in Japan.
Although the company says the smile scan system is not compulsory, all of their staff has used it. The idea is for the workers to retain their scanner-approved beams throughout the day.
Every morning, workers at the railway company jumpstart the day by smiling into a camera hooked up to a computer to make sure they’re smiling properly. The computer then runs a feedback like ‘Lift up your mouth corners’ or ‘You still look too serious’ if one’s looking a bit sour. The worker proceeds to correct his smile and starts his duty.
The smile scanners also prints out an ideal smile to which employees can refer to should their spirits hit a low anytime of the day.
Recent studies have shown that smiling has lots of health benefits including overpowering stress. Do you approve the method used by the Keihin Express Railway to boost their worker’s emotions and deliver better service?
