The term emotional labor was defined by Arlie Hochschild for the first time in 1983. However, at that time, workers mainly worked at back ends. Later during the 1990s, when the service industry grew, the concept of Hochschild emotional labor got public attention. In this article, we will explore the concept of emotional labor in detail.
Emotional Labor: Definition
We all know that tasks like construction work, farming and the like require a lot of physical labor. The bodies of such workers experience most of the work-related stress. Until recently nobody talked about the mental labor of jobs. If you have ever had a front-line job, like that of an air hostess or receptionist or a customer care helpline or delivery agents or waiters, you would know what emotional labor is all about. There would be days when you would not be in a happy mood. However, you must appear happy and cheerful because your job requires you to smile and greet customers. You may be anxious because your child is sick, but you have to reply to all customers with a smile. Some customers may be deliberately rude to you but you cannot display your irritation. Hence, you suppress a lot of emotions and display an emotion that is not consistent with what you are feeling. This is called emotional labor.
Employees display organizationally desired emotions while interacting with others at the workplace, irrespective of how they are feeling covertly. As a result of such conscious suppression of emotions, employees often battle on the inside despite being happy outwardly.
Hochschild Emotional Labor: Theory
Two crucial aspects related to the management of emotions are deep acting and surface acting. Hochschild gave special importance to these aspects in her conceptualization of emotional labor.
What is deep acting?
Deep acting involves a genuine attempt to feel the socially appropriate emotion. For instance, when you visit the airport, you may find a few ground staff members who are extremely proactive and attempt to help all passengers. They may even approach you if they perceive that you have some problem. I remember a time when I was at a railway station and was unable to find the ticket counter. The on-duty railway police staff noted that I was desperately searching for something. He came forward and asked me what I needed. This may be an example of deep acting where the staff genuinely made an effort to feel empathy for me.
What is surface acting?
Surface acting involves superficially displaying an emotion without genuinely experiencing it. All of us are familiar with surface acting. Think about a time you called some customer care number and at the end of the call they thank you for calling and say “Have a good day and give a good feedback” in a robotic way. Even if your problem was not resolved.
Surface acting is in general harmless. It allows employees and customers to have a pleasant exchange. In addition, it places a little emotional burden on employees.
Conclusion
Emotional labor puts employees at a high risk of developing mental health issues. This is because they have to constantly battle with their true feelings. However, the degree of risk depends upon factors such as personality, duration of faking emotions, working and family conditions.
As customers, we can make the lives of front-line employees better. In order to do so, we must refrain from being unnecessarily rude to them. Your polite behavior will enable them to have good mental health.