Communication with the customers

have observed a barmaid at work and how she uses her body language to communicate with the customers. I will be observing people from around my workplace and taking notes, and photo's so that I can demonstrate my findings to my classmates.

I expected to find a big difference between female and male bar staff. I also expected to find mainly positive body language being used. I observed that the barmaid I watched did not always show positive body language. In fact, more than not she showed through her nonverbal communication that she was disinterested, uncomfortable or angry.

I observed her a lot of the time with one hand on her hip, and the other outreached and holding the bar. This left an arm's length between her and the customers, making sure they were not in her intimate zone. The intimate zone is a space in between 6-18 inches; the personal zone is a distance of 1. 5-4 feet away from the person in question. There are also other zones, the social zone and the public zone. These last two do not often apply to bar staff, as they are constantly in close proximity with the customers.

I mainly noticed that her behaviour changed towards different customers, and people she works with. This could be because of seniority and comfortableness around certain people. It also depends on people's behaviour and attitudes towards other people. Alan and Barbara Pease say that the emotions perceived from others, can alter the state of mind of other individuals. They also confirm that the saying "laughter can be infectious" is true; it produces endorphins in other people and so makes them happier.This explains that when Lois - my test subject - see's people looking unhappy, her mood also drops, whereas when she see's somebody smiling at her, it is hard for her not to instantly smile back no matter what mood she's currently in.

The other thing that I added into my observation was whether sex made a difference to the body language used by bar staff. I found that the male's body language was a lot more relaxed and confident than that of a female. It was also more confident and there were less signs of negative leakage.This could have been because most of the customers are male; the female staff felt as if they were being judged, especially by the drunk customers.

The females touched their hair a lot, which is preening, but this was accompanied by scratching of the neck, and standing far back from the customers. This shows that the preening was not in a flirtatious nature, but was actually self-touching which is often a sign of being uncomfortable. This is a form of leakage, as it is an unconscious and uncontrollable sign which shows somebody's emotional state.I feel that my investigation was quite strong as I always observed the same two bar staff which meant the body language between the two could be fairly compared.

However, as I knew both of the subjects I could have read their body language differently to other people. I think that if I had experimented with other people, my results would have been slightly different. I mainly noticed that her behaviour changed towards different customers, and people she works with. This could be because of seniority and comfortableness around certain people.It also depends on people's behaviour and attitudes towards other people. Alan and Barbara Pease say that the emotions perceived from others, can alter the state of mind of other individuals.

They also confirm that the saying "laughter can be infectious" is true; it produces endorphins in other people and so makes them happier. This explains that when Lois - my test subject - see's people looking unhappy, her mood also drops, whereas when she see's somebody smiling at her, it is hard for her not to instantly smile back no matter what mood she's currently in.The other thing that I added into my observation was whether sex made a difference to the body language used by bar staff. I found that the male's body language was a lot more relaxed and confident than that of a female.

It was also more confident and there were less signs of negative leakage. This could have been because most of the customers are male; the female staff felt as if they were being judged, especially by the drunk customers. The females touched their hair a lot, which is preening, but this was accompanied by scratching of the neck, and standing far back from the customers.This shows that the preening was not in a flirtatious nature, but was actually self-touching which is often a sign of being uncomfortable. This is a form of leakage, as it is an unconscious and uncontrollable sign which shows somebody's emotional state.

I feel that my investigation was quite strong as I always observed the same two bar staff which meant the body language between the two could be fairly compared. However, as I knew both of the subjects I could have read their body language differently to other people. I think that if I had experimented with other people, my results would have been slightly different.