> "If you use “kind girl behind the counter” language about the 0.01% most aggravating customer once, you will not be a bank teller tomorrow. So bank tellers basically never use those words, and instead can inflect “Can I help you, sir?” in a way which leaves absolutely no doubt as to how welcome the new arrival to the branch is."

I found myself nodding along to a lot of the contents of this article, but I totally disagree with this part... it runs totally counter to my experience. To be fair, maybe my experience was the exception that proves the rule (or maybe things have changed since I worked front-line at a financial institution), but the expectation that you would be cold or unwelcoming to a customer (or prospective customer) based on class or perceived class was absolutely not the case. Like, I cannot stress that enough. Don't get me wrong, there were procedural safeguards such as "no checking account if you have <650 FICO", but you were expected to be welcoming to everyone who walked in the door and "they seemed poor" would certainly not be an acceptable excuse for snubbing a customer.