Emotional Labor in the Workplace: Emotional Labor Definition

In the workplace, emotional labor refers to the process by which you regulate your own emotions to better act out the emotional expressions required by the kind of work you do. This refers as much to how you interact with your fellow coworkers as it does with how you interface with your customer base and the wider public.

Sociologist Arlie Hochschild first coined this term in her 1983 book, The Managed Heart: Commercialization of Human Feeling, and gave it this definition, although people have affixed many alternative meanings to the term since then. In this original sense, emotional labor referred explicitly to the potential dissonance between the unpaid work of regulating one’s emotions on the job as opposed to the paid work of doing mental or physical labor.

The term emotional labor has come to mean different things to different people. The original meaning of the term referred most explicitly to emotional regulation in the workforce specifically.

It can now also mean the “emotion work” necessary to appease toxic family members or the effort necessary to maintain successful romantic relationships. Some use it to nebulously refer to all forms of emotional management, while others use it as a term to critique gender roles (more specifically, the extra unpaid labor and household chores required of women instead of men historically).

In the broadest sense possible, emotional labor means any sort of attempt by an individual to regulate their own feelings in the service of other people’s emotions in either a personal or professional environment.

Emotional labor crops up in different ways throughout the workforce. Consider these three ways a person might have to act out inauthentic feelings at their jobs:

1. 1. Acting empathetic: Certain professions require empathy—think of a doctor and their requisite “bedside manner.” To bear the mental load of being empathetic in all situations, some people turn to surface acting—simply feigning empathy as a traditional actor would—while others might turn to deep acting—convincing themselves of their own empathy even if it might not be there at first.
2. 2. Acting happy: Particularly in the service industry, acting as if you’re happy all the time is one of the forms of invisible labor. The same goes for the childcare professions, wherein workers must remain upbeat for both children and parents all day. This can prove exhausting to many employees given it’s nearly impossible to be happy every single moment of every single day.
3. 3. Acting neutral: Some professions require extreme emotion regulation and neutrality. Consider frontline health care workers or surgeons. In a life-or-death situation, odds are these professionals feel heavy amounts of anxiety and stress; however, they must remain stable and steady to reassure the patient that they are in safe hands.

Your job might require you to adapt your emotions at one point or another to perform your role well. Keep these four tips in mind as you do your best to meet the demands of emotional labor:

1. 1. Be mindful. Even the most patient people get fed up occasionally—and mindfulness can help when a stressful situation or feeling rules the rest of your psyche. Take a moment to focus on your breath or the sensation of stress in the present moment. Realize it will pass soon. As an emotion management tool, try to meditate for a consistent period outside of work as well.
2. 2. Establish boundaries. Unless you set boundaries, burnout is inevitable in any career. The consequences of emotional labor can add up, especially given how inauthentic it can potentially make you feel. Do your best to separate your work life and personal life in your mind. At the same time, remind yourself there’s a difference between politely performing your duties and outright inauthenticity. You can practice emotional intelligence at work while remaining true to yourself.
3. 3. Seek out suitable employment. You’ll have to make an emotional effort at times regardless of your job, but some work roles require more emotional labor than others. For instance, a flight attendant who routinely flies from New York to Europe will have to put on a happy face in front of the public for more hours out of a given day than a graphic designer who works at home would. Seek out a career in which you feel comfortable performing the amount of emotional labor required. Ask people about examples of emotional labor they’ve performed throughout their own careers to get a general idea of what sort of job would work best for you.
4. 4. Take care of yourself. Maintain your mental health and well-being and be honest with yourself if a job is taking too much out of you. Go above and beyond if you can, but remember there’s nothing wrong with saying you can’t handle a second shift this week or you need to take a mental health day off. Rude customers and adverse circumstances get to the most patient of people, so always have grace for yourself.

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