Ah, Christmas music. It’s divisive: Some love it, some can’t stand it, and most fall somewhere in between. Most of the time you hear it on the radio or in a store and, if you’re not enjoying it, you can change the channel or just hang tough for a couple of minutes until you leave. If you’re in a situation where you can’t change the music and you can’t leave, that means you’re either in jail or a retail worker.
Outside the holiday season, most retail establishments play a curated selection of music, either provided by the corporate offices, an on-site manager, or via an internet-radio platform like Pandora. The amount of songs per playlist varies, but it’s not uncommon for an employee to hear the same song twice or three times in an eight-hour shift. Christmas playlists, however, are shorter; there’s a smaller selection to choose from. If your store has a playlist of 20-30 Christmas songs, you could stand the chance of hearing “Dominick the Donkey” every hour on the hour. And if your store likes to put the Christmas decorations up right after Halloween, the whole thing could go on for months.
As many know, repetitive music can be weaponized. Loud, nonstop music is an interrogation technique used by the CIA, after all. The songs chosen have to be obnoxious, creepy, insipid, uncomfortable, or otherwise displeasing to the ear in order to get people to break. I can think of a couple of Christmas tunes that fit the bill.
“People working in the shops at Christmas have to tune out Christmas music, because if they don’t, it really does stop you from being able to focus on anything else,” British clinical psychologist Linda Blair told Sky News in 2017. “You’re simply spending all of your energy trying not to hear what you’re hearing.”
Blair’s thesis ― that sales associates expend a lot of mental energy trying to tune out the Christmas spirit ― is amplified by the “mere mention effect,” which Victoria Williamson Ph.D., a London-based researcher of the psychology of music, said can turn people away from festive feelings and toward stress.
Williamson told NBC in 2012 that a person’s reaction to a given piece of music is inextricably linked to how many times a person has heard it and in what context.
Music seldom makes us angry all on its own, she noted. If a person is stressed while listening to a certain song on repeat ― perhaps because they’re working a retail job during the holidays ― they’re going to have a reaction to the music that reflects the stress of the situation.
Essentially, the pleasure taken in a given Christmas song deteriorates the more the person is exposed to it, and stress exacerbates the problem (per Williamson) which causes the brain to work overtime to counteract the negative effects (per Blair).
It may not be torture, but it kind of sounds like a nightmare.
A 2017 poll released by corporate background-music provider Soundtrack Your Brand found that 25 percent of retail employees disliked hearing Christmas music at work, with 16 percent adding that holiday songs negatively impacted their work environment.
Comparing this to the more than 50 percent of customers who prefer Christmas tunes while they shop, it’s easy to see why business owners want to keep the carols coming.
This could spell “tough luck” for the retail employees who must endure the strains of “All I Want for Christmas is You” eight times a day for eight weeks out of the year; after all, what recourse does the poor shop worker have against the Scrooges of the world?
For one thing, they can go on strike.
At least three times, according to a 2006 Guardian story, retail workers have demanded that their companies cease playing Christmas music on repeat for the sake of their mental health. Czech retail employees walked out of a shop in protest of Christmas music, The Guardian claimed, and a similar strike occurred in Austria in 2003. In 2006, the UK’s Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers (USDAW) was considering mounting legal action to prevent companies from playing Christmas tunes on repeat.
“What we’re saying is that, if Christmas carols are being played on the same CD repeatedly, that could create an unhealthy working environment,” said Paul Clarke, USDAW spokesperson. “It must drive people to distraction.”
While a strike definitely conveys the seriousness of these workers’ concerns, maybe there’s something these businesses can do before it gets to the point of collective bargaining.
Soundtrack Your Brand recommended that retailers play Christmas tunes only once every 10 songs and to also pursue cover versions of some of the classics. There’s also the notion of slowing the “Christmas Creep” ― where retailers start to set up holiday merchandise as early in the season as possible ― for which Target set the precedent in 2017 when they ended a policy of setting up for Christmas right after Halloween.
Until the world falls in line and comes up with a yuletide solution that is equitable for employer and employee alike, we can all try to remember to be a little extra patient with retail staff during the holidays. Help out where you can. Put things back where you found them. Be kind. You never know how many times the person helping you has heard “Dominick the Donkey” that day.
Merry Christmas, everybody.
