Alex Beam’s column “Faking niceness? Not me. I don’t have to. I’m a journalist’’ (Opinion, July 5) is prompting me to share my own experience on the matter.

I worked for a national chain pharmacy where at one time we were required to greet each and every patient with “Welcome to [pharmacy name].’’ No exceptions.

This made no sense to me when the person in front of me was a longtime patient whom I knew quite well. They already knew they were welcome at [pharmacy name]!

We were also expected to end each transaction with “Thank you and be well.’’ It didn’t matter whether the patient had a terminal illness. There were no exceptions allowed.

To enforce this mandated policy of “niceness,’’ a front store manager would often stand to one side and monitor whether we were doing this with every patient. Failure to do so would result in a verbal reprimand, then a written one. Too many reprimands, and your continued employment could be doubtful.

Isn’t that nice?

Susan Vokey

Peabody