Analysis of the Concept of Emotional Labour - Essay Example

Emotional labor focuses on adding the elements of sympathy and care in all employee-consumer interactions which take place. This means that independent of whatever personal problems or mental turbulence an employee is dealing with, he/she is still required to greet customers with positive energy and a friendly attitude. However, critics also argue that rigid compliance with emotional labor can prove to be devastating for many employees because of the negative effect exerted on their sense of identity. The importance of their self will be lost and they will feel like automatons forced to maintain artificeControlling personal issues to display the right emotions for customers forms the bedrock of emotional labor. This concept was first introduced by Hochschild in her book “The Managed Heart.” As the name of her book implies, emotional labor is about managing the heart and not permitting personal emotions to burst at the seams in front of a customer. Inhibiting inner feelings and conforming to an external ideal to project a better image of the organization is emotional labor.

Some service industries require employees to treat customers nicely regardless of how rude or unreasonable the customer is. In this case especially when an employee is already not feeling well but still attempting to be nice, rude customers can readily make things worse. Research suggests that being forced to manage emotions in such drastic situations can culminate in work stress. Such workers can get very detached from their real selves and may also experience burnout as a result. Hochschild herself addresses this worrisome issue by claiming that “the worker can become estranged or alienated from an aspect of self” (Hochschild 7).

Jaffe in her article also points out that emotional labor makes female employees disadvantaged in the workplace. Instead of benefiting them significantly, the kindness or caring provided by women in care fields is taken for weakness. This kind of trend adds to the exploitation of caring female employees (Harvey cited in Jaffe). Women are universally expected to display a greater level of care for others and behave more kindly. They are expected to be submissive and disregard their personal issues. Women’s work is never really valued as it should be because when they are kind, they are considered vulnerable.

Summing up, emotional labor has both advantages and disadvantages. If on the one hand, it helps to project a positive image of employers, employees, and the company, then on another hand, it takes away the sense of identity from employees. Also, it can cause people to not take women working in care fields seriously. Care should be about pleasing others, but the self should not be forgotten in the process.