This study examines the relation between customer abuse and aggression, the gender and
sexual expression of workers, and labour control in low-wage services. In-depth interviews
with 30 lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT)1low-wage service sector
workers reveal how customer abuse and aggression works in consort with management
strategies to reproduce cis- and heteronormativity. Customer abuse and aggression
disciplined worker expressions of non-normative gender and sexual identities, leading to
concealment and self-policing. Management was complicit in this dynamic, placing
profitability and customer satisfaction over the safety of LGBT workers, only intervening
in instances of customer abuse and aggression when it had a limited economic impact. It is
posited that customer abuse and aggression is not only a response to unmet expectations
emanating from the labour process but is also a mechanism of labour control that
disciplines worker behaviour and aesthetics, directly and indirectly, by influencing
management prerogatives.