An employer that runs a call center is expecting that its employees maintain constant calm, even though they are frequently dealing with irate customers. Employees are forbidden from suggesting that a customer calm down, or that they stop shouting. Employees cannot respond to name-calling. The employee is supposed to sit there and take it, and has no way to shorten a call when a customer keeps ranting, which can mean that on top of everything else the employee's productivity goes down because they're completing fewer calls. Can an employer really require employees to absorb that level of abuse without reaction, and discipline or fire employees who react?

