Emotional labor
Emotional labor refers to the effort involved in managing one's emotions to fulfill the emotional requirements of a job or social role. This concept encompasses activities that support relationships, help manage others' feelings, and organize tasks, and it often goes unrecognized, particularly affecting marginalized groups such as women, low-wage workers, and people of color. Originating from sociologist Arlie Hochschild's work in the 1980s, emotional labor highlights the expectations placed on individuals, especially in service industries, to present positive emotions regardless of their true feelings.
In many low-wage jobs, such as those in hospitality or customer service, workers are required to expend significant emotional energy to maintain a friendly demeanor and anticipate client needs, often without appropriate recognition or compensation for this effort. Emotional labor can take two forms: surface acting, where individuals display emotions they do not genuinely feel, and deep acting, which involves trying to cultivate the necessary emotions internally. Critics argue that the burden of emotional labor disproportionately falls on women and minorities, who may be socialized to undertake such responsibilities without acknowledgment of their value. Beyond the workplace, emotional labor also manifests in domestic settings, where individuals manage familial emotions, plan events, and oversee household tasks, often reinforcing traditional gender roles. Overall, the complexities of emotional labor raise important ethical considerations about its recognition and compensation in various contexts.
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Emotional labor
Emotional labor is work that is done in the home, in the community, and on the job that helps support relationships, manages other people's feelings, and organizes tasks. Emotional labor is often unseen and is not usually recognized, even by those who do it. Many social scientists believe that emotional labor is often the duty of people in marginalized groups, including women, low-wage workers, people of color, and other minorities. Emotional labor comes in many forms and can take a toll on the people who perform it.
Background
Although emotional labor has most likely been performed for most of human history, sociologist Arlie Hochschild first developed the theory in the 1980s. In her book The Managed Heart (1983), Hochschild explained emotional work, particularly such labor performed in the workplace. According to Hochschild, emotional labor is "the management of feelings to create bodily and facial displays compliant with social requirements." In other words, Hochschild defined emotional labor as work to display or portray the socially correct emotions and reactions in given situations. Emotional work, then, is done to maintain relationships and manage other people's feelings. Hochschild's book created a wave of research and study into the subject. In 1999, the Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science published a volume that was all about emotional labor and the research into it. Since Hochschild first coined the term in the 1980s, the study of emotional labor has become more common. The idea of emotional labor has also been applied to work performed outside the workplace.
Overview
Emotional labor is a part of almost every job, although some jobs require much more than others do. Nearly all jobs require people to interact with coworkers or managers. When a person sees a coworker or a supervisor, he or she usually feels it is necessary to interact in a kind, friendly way, even if he or she is not particularly in a good mood. Emotional labor is especially important in service industry jobs, such as cashiers, servers, and housekeepers. These jobs, which are often low paying, require workers to expend large amounts of emotional energy caring for customers, maintaining positive attitudes, and anticipating other people's needs. Performing this much emotional labor can be difficult for some people. Since people in low-wage jobs often have stress from their financial situations, low-wage workers are especially taxed by the demands of emotional labor. Hochschild pointed out in The Managed Heart that emotional work has become much more important in the United States, as the country has moved from a manufacturing-based economy to a service-based economy. Service jobs require workers to interact with others and use more emotional labor.
In the workplace, emotional labor is often the type of work that is not acknowledged by managers and supervisors. Emotional labor, such as managing clients' feelings, is not often called out as a specific task that employees do. Yet, low-wages workers often have no choice but to engage in emotional labor if they want to keep their jobs. Service industry companies expect and demand their employees to engage in this emotional work. Yet, this emotional labor is not compensated. Companies do not see emotional work as worthy of being compensated for. Instead, companies believe that smiling, being outgoing, being active, and acting kind are all things workers should do as a natural part of their jobs. Some people believe that ignoring the cost and toll of emotional work is unethical. Others believe that service industry workers should be compensated more because of the emotional energy they are expected to expend.
Surface acting is one specific type of emotional labor. During surface acting, a person may feel negative emotions about being in a certain situation, but he or she must portray a positive attitude on the outside. For example, a customer service representative may talk to a rude customer and feel disrespected, but the representative maintains a positive attitude and kind demeanor when speaking with the customer. Surface acting is a common occurrence in many different jobs for many different people. However, some circumstances make surface acting more likely to occur. People are more likely to surface act if they are introverts but their work requires extroversion; if they are doing work that does not align to their values; or if they are working in environments that try to strictly control workers' emotions.
Another specific type of emotional work is deep acting. Deep acting requires a person to attempt to feel an emotion that he or she does not already feel. For example, a worker involved in deep acting might attempt to actually feel cheerful about a chore that he or she is unhappy about completing. Often people who are involved in deep acting use past experiences with certain emotions to help them develop an emotion they do not naturally feel.
Workers can be emotionally and mentally harmed by performing emotional labor. Sociologists and other experts point out that this burden is also unfairly placed in society. More women than men work in low-wage service industry jobs, making women more responsible for completing this unpaid labor. Furthermore, about half the women in these low-wage jobs are women of color, resulting in minorities shouldering more of the burden of emotional labor.
Since the 1980s, some social scientists have started to include labor done outside the workplace as emotional labor. This labor often includes common household chores and duties that have been traditionally—although not exclusively—performed by women. Examples of emotional labor in a home include keeping track of birthdays and special events, knowing what children or other dependents need, knowing the location of items in the home, and planning what supplies and food need to be purchased. Feminists in the twenty-first century have pointed out that women often have to complete the emotional labor when a household is headed by a man and a woman. Some social scientists believe that women are socialized to accept and take on the emotional labor and men are socialized to overlook and not realize the value of this work.
Bibliography
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Harvey Wingfield, Adia. "How 'Service with a Smile' Takes a Toll on Women." Atlantic, 26 Jan. 2016, www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2016/01/gender-emotional-labor/427083/. Accessed 13 Dec. 2024.
Hochschild, Arlie. "Emotion Work, Feeling Rules, and Social Structure." American Journal of Sociology, vol. 85, 1979, pp. 551–75.
Hochschild, Arlie. The Managed Heart: Commercialization of Human Feeling. U of California P, 1983.
Hogenboom, Melissa. “The Hidden Load: How 'Thinking of Everything' Holds Mums Back.” BBC, 18 May 2021, www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20210518-the-hidden-load-how-thinking-of-everything-holds-mums-back. Accessed 13 Dec. 2024.
Leidner, Robin. "Emotional Labor in Service Work." Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, vol. 561, 1999, pp. 81–95.
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