Emotional Labor : Psychological Stress

Although originally written in 1983, The Managed Heart is still an up to date look at an interesting concept: combining emotional feelings with the work one does. At first glance, the notion that emotions may have an impact on one’s work environment seems almost a non-issue. However, Hochschild is not saying that; rather, Hochschild looks at the effect of emotions in the workplace, but also the interaction of those emotions with the work itself. The author’s interest in this topic began at an early age, 12, when she recounts an event in her life: her parents, part of the U.S. Foreign Service, entertained diplomats. Hochschild describes the question that came to her mind as she looked up into the smiling face of a

Separately recognizing, understand, and managing emotions can be simple, nevertheless remaining able to recognize, understand and manage emotions is quite complex and oftentimes rare. If a customer comes to a business in the past and has an excellent experience, then they will form a strong relationship with the company, and recommend the company to other people. To illustrate, when my sister worked at Chick-fil-la her first two weeks of job training focused on how to be EI to customers. By having this extensive training Chick-fil-la is known for its customer service as a result of emotionally intelligent employees, and constant returning customers. The fact that all Chick-fil-a’s employees are trained to be emotionally intelligent, it

Supervisors and managers can encourage their employees to do things such as exercise (Wong, 2016) to help improve their mood, especially during significantly stressful times. Kinicki and Fugate (2016) wrote that emotions are products of our thoughts, behaviors, and experiences. They also wrote about some specific things we can do to manage our thoughts and behaviors to experience more positive emotions: manage expectations, take time to plan and organize, give a gift to other people, deflect partisan conversations, assume people have good intentions, focus on the job in front of you, and end the day with gratitude (Kinicki & Fugate,

From the top down, emotional labour is necessary in almost every profession. The way employees interact with customers can directly and indirectly impact sales and the reputation of a company. While it is very visible in lower class jobs like waitresses and cashiers, who interact with customers directly every time they do their job, it is also necessary in higher positions in a corporation. People in management positions are told they must treat employees with respect because happy employees can increase productivity. In A Managed Heart, Hochschild focuses on mid-class professions and how workers participate in emotional labour. Ofri’s book, What Doctors Feel, focuses on emotional work in the high class medical industry. Hochschild’s A Managed Heart highlights the dangers of emotional management where Ofri’s What Doctors Feel has a more positive outlook on the topic, however, both authors would agree that expressing the proper emotion at the proper time - despite some risk - is necessary in almost ever career.

In contrast, the manager of the Revenue Commissioner only does well when the emotions are evident (e.g. anger and excitement). All the respondents believe that some emotions are easier to read than others. The pharmacy technician relies on certain cues such as the “smiling eyes” to signal happiness. In contrast, the therapy director believes that the feeling of upset is more transparent than happiness. Altogether, the responses support the theory of the six universal emotions: anger, fear, sadness, happiness, disgust, and surprise.

The workers at the deli chain Pret A Manger is used as a prime example of this by Timothy Noah in his article “Labor of Love.” Noah’s article builds primarily off the work of Arlie Hochschild, who defined “emotional labor,” which is is when employees must "induce or suppress” emotions in order to make the customer "experience a positive feeling" (1-2). According to Noah, Pret’s employees are extreme examples of “emotional laborers,” as they must follow set “Pret Behaviors” at all times. These rules of behavior make positivity and smiling mandatory, and subsequently all Pret workers must not only serve customers food, but also cater to their emotions (2-3). If employees fail to uphold their happy facade they face repercussions, often in the form of withheld bonuses (3). Noah states the stress to perform to these standards at all times makes the employees into “enthusiasm cops,” watching and enforcing these emotional behaviors onto one another, and as Noah puts it, “further constricting any space for a reserved and private self” (3). It is in this way that Pret manipulates its own workers into doing extra work (emotional labor and the enforcement of it) without extra

It is also essential for us to find the “appropriate” emotion during work. If we cannot find the emotional boundaries between appropriate and inappropriate, we might face either underinvolvement or overinvolvement (Skovholt & Rønnestad, 2003, p.50). Although the human service career is rewarding, doesn't mean it's going to be easy. Every day we need to face clients with different issues, and our daily day is highly possible be emotional draining because of struggling individuals. Learning how to control our emotion inside or outside of our workplace is one of the important lesson in our career life. In addition, our unfinished business in our life could definitely make things difficult. Maintain wellness is important for every human service professional. We all know that unfinished personal concerns can limit the helper’s ability to build a working alliance with a client, that’s why we need to attend other counseling and understand how to help ourselves before we help

It is evident that the relationship between work stress and mental health has been established by numerous research studies. As discussed in Koesky (1993), the fact that all jobs involve some degree of stress makes it all the more alarming as to the level of stress experienced by individuals working in the human services. That is, given that these individuals are heavily involved in the lives of others, they often develop mental health symptoms that are characteristic of work-related stressors. In fact, “This involvement, which requires caring commitment and empathic responding, places workers at risk for a special type of strain commonly referred to as 'burnout'” (Koesky, 1993, p. 319).

During my time at the soup kitchen, I had to utilize emotion management when dealing with people and situations in which it would have been inappropriate for me to react in the way that I would otherwise have wanted to. Emotion management is the act of obeying “feeling rules” and responding appropriately to situations (Brym and Lie 2012:77). For example, when a homeless man came into the soup kitchen and started to dance and shout instead of calmly sitting down and eating his meal, I courteously asked him to sit down and to try not to disturb the other guests of the establishment. Regardless of any initial emotions of fear, annoyance, or confusion, I had to respond appropriately to the situation by controlling my emotions and engaging in acceptable behavior. I especially had to utilize emotion labor, which is distinguished

“Emotional intelligence is the ability to understand and manage our emotions and those around us, therefore, this quality gives individuals a variety of skills, such as the ability to manage relationships, navigate social networks, influence and inspire others. Every individual possesses different level, but in order for individuals to become effective leaders, they will need a high level of emotional intelligence. In today’s workplace, it has become a highly important

emotional labor is often called being polite, it is a near universal part of every job and of life. Nevertheless, the level to which individual performances makes a meaningful difference. An individual can “deep act” in a manner that is still related with one’s core values and beliefs at work (“Yes, the customer is being patronizing, but I empathize with her and care about solving her problem”) or “surface act” (“I’ll be nice, but deep down I’m really spitting nails”). There are two distinguishing strategy for emotional labor: the deep acting and the surface acting. Surface acting is modifying the displayed emotion while the deep acting involves altering actual emotional state. Research show that engaging to emotional labor leads to poor health,

While labor can and is often seen as work that is done physically, it is also seen as an act which necessitates using mind and soul. Depending on the area in which an individual works, it can lean towards using all three – body, mind, and soul – to be successful. It is at this point that Emotional Labor (Hochschild, 1983) begins to take its place in the work environment. Emotional Labor is using self to perform work where an employee creates a pleasant atmosphere by giving good customer service. The ability to use self as a means to perform better on the job may have larger implications than we know of. This paper will look at different ideas which contribute to Emotional Labor as a workplace construct and the effects it has on the

In our everyday lives, we are constantly interacting with other individuals. These interactions have an effect on our emotions. We have to learn how to identify and deal with these emotions because they have a direct effect on how we deal with issues at work. Individuals can work their way through this process by becoming aware of the importance of emotional intelligence.

In contrast with the past workplace challenges and organizational behavior, there is a necessity to understand ourselves and others. Sometimes the stress and prestige can cause an adverse impact on one’s position in the workplace. The ability to deal with our emotions while working effectually with others and at the same time, performing the organization’s expectations are in high demand. Since the employees are an asset, and the organization is expecting a return on their investment, understanding how emotions work and how it impacts one’s capacity is indispensable in accomplishing organizational goals. In the workplace, people often have to work with each other. So the handling of relationships and interacting with others becomes the key to the success of the organization. Managers need to have a combination of skills and abilities such as the strength of will, awareness of self, empathy for others and sensitivity toward others internally and externally. Before one can handle others emotions he/she must first learn to lead themselves. So the question become, how is this done? Coleman’s theory suggest that this can be done through emotional intelligence which is the ability to create, build and maintain viable relationships (Coleman, 1998, p. 14). No one wants to follow the leadership of a person who cannot manage his/her emotions. Let’s look together at three business CEO’s personal backgrounds and use of emotional intelligence. The top chief emotions officers in the U.S.

Attitudes and emotions in the workplace are extremely important because they dictate job performance. The emotions that people go through are something that cannot be avoided; however, they can be manipulated. Managers, leaders, CEO’S of companies learn to do this by experience and training. They manipulate employee’s emotions with the purpose of achieving better performance and satisfy an organization’s goals. Although people have always had different emotions, the notion that managers need to care for employee’s satisfaction and happiness is newly implemented in the workplace. In this paper, I will be explaining the impact of attitudes in the workplace, how mood, emotions, attitudes and behavior affect job performance and I will implement the point of view of the CEO of the Defense Commissary Agency, Mr. Joseph Jeu.