Retail Workers Say Holiday Music Is Emotionally Damaging: Study

It’s jingle hell. One-quarter of American retail workers say their holiday spirit is dying because they’re forced to listen to Christmas songs all day — with some saying it’s damaging their emotional well-being, according to a new study. “Feeling less festive is a specific mental reaction to listening to Christmas music and rebelling against it, whereas the data showing it can have a negative effect on worker wellbeing must be treated with much more caution,” said Ola Sars, founder of Soundtrack Your Brand, a streaming service for background music, which conducted the study. “In what can be a highly stressful job at this time of year, it’s important to consider whether a store’s soundtrack is actually increasing stress among its staff,” he added. The company, which is partly owned by Spotify, surveyed more than 2,000 customers and retail staffers in the United States and United Kingdom about the tunes played during holiday shopping season. Read more at New York Post.