preview

Emotional Labor Professions

Decent Essays
Open Document

Emotional Labor is a person’s ability to accurately analysis their internal emotion, decide if it is compatible with the required response to a situation and then change their external expressions to compensate for any differences or competing discrepancies. The Free Dictionary describes this as, “...the process of managing feelings and expressions to fulfill the emotional requirements of a job” (Farlex, n.d.). Some people are better at this skill than others. A person with a high level of empathy, emotional intelligence, and maturity is able to find the correct way to look, act, and know what to say. If you want to find someone that practices emotional labor you need to only look at the following professions: emergency dispatchers, police …show more content…

Women seem to express a higher level of caring, concern (love of people), honesty, loyalty, and conscientiousness than men (Battistina Costantino, 2016). Women may come across these traits naturally, or maybe it is something that was taught to them when they were young. A woman may have developed the skill while learning how to fulfill her adult roles as the family caregiver, diplomat, and household manager/coordinator. When she entered the work force this skill would have already been sharpened, ingrained in her demeanor (Battistina Costantino, 2016). There is an opinion that professions that need a high level of emotional labor are filled by women and that these professions are typically lower paying, contributing to the idea that women get paid less than men. I believe if this skill can be taught to women, then a man can be taught if he hasn’t already developed the skill. All I need to do is look at professions usually populated by men, such as police and firefighters to know they have it. These men hold back all their natural instinct and common sense to run away from danger instead of running to it. They run to the scene to take control; to save lives, stop the criminal or fight the fire. Also, as more women work in professions prominently dominated by men, such as police officers, firefighters, doctors, judges, and politicians, so do men work in more dominated fields by women, such

Get Access