FLEs' concerns with misbehaving customers in the time of COVID and beyond

PurposeThis research investigates the impact of customer rule violation issues on frontline employees' (FLEs’) burnout due-to-customers. A model and hypotheses are developed using COR theory and past literature on misbehaving customers and their effects on customer-facing employees.Design/methodology/approachThe proposed model was assessed using a survey of 840 frontline retail, restaurant, service and caregiving employees and their reactions to the issue of misbehaving customers (i.e. rule breaking and/or rude customers).FindingsFLEs' perceived frequency of customer rule violations, FLEs' concerns with misbehaving customers and FLEs' concerns with enforcing rules with these customers increased FLEs' burnout due-to-customers, while FLEs' customer orientation decreased it. Interactions among several antecedents were found relative to their effects on burnout. Burnout due-to-customers decreased FLEs' organizational commitment and increased quitting intentions. Additionally, this burnout mediated the relationships between our studied antecedents and job outcome variables (either partially or fully), with organizational commitment also mediating the relationship between burnout and quitting intentions.Originality/valueThe impact of FLEs' concerns relative to customers' rule breaking, which has not been previously addressed, is shown to increase FLEs' burnout due-to-customers, while FLEs' customer orientation buffered and reduced burnout, with frequency of violations interacting with several antecedents, and ultimately affecting burnout and several dependent variables—organizational commitment and quitting intentions. These FLE rule violation and enforcement concerns, captured at the height of the pandemic, are new variables to the literature. These issues have important implications for managers as to their treatment and training of FLEs in the future.