Service organizations are encouraged to consider the manner in which employees perform at the customer/front-line employee interface, as a means to gain competitive advantage. The employee's behaviour requires "emotional labour" where the front-line employee (academic), has to either conceal or manage actual feelings for the benefit of a successful service delivery. The implication is not necessarily of equality or mutual benefit, but of satisfaction for the customer (student) and profit for the management. The paper discusses whether the academic is being exploited in this three-way relationship. To illustrate this argument, data gathered from in-depth interviews at a higher education institution are used. The research is of value as an aid for the management and support of academic staff in an age of managerialism and to the notion of the student as customer. (Contains 1 note.)