Meaning of emotional labor | Babel Free

Definitions

1. The act of managing feelings and displaying certain expressions in order to meet the requirements of a job.
   uncountable
2. Jobs which require such management and display.
   uncountable
3. The display and management of emotion in non-professional, interpersonal relationships; emotion work.
   uncountable

Examples

“It was that “pinch,” or conflict, between such feelings and the pilot’s Call for authenticity that led me to write down in my own notebook, "emotional labor."”

“Emotional labor does not observe conventional distinctions between types of jobs. By my estimate, roughly one-third of American workers today have jobs that subject them to substantial demands for emotional labor.”

“Further, theory on emotional labor—or organizationally mandated “rules” requiring employees to engage in “surface acting, deep acting, and the expression of spontaneous and genuine emotion” […] suggests that such emotional expectations create pressure to identify with one's work role.”

“In emotional labor jobs (Hochschild 1983), emotional displays are a matter of survival rather than personal choice, as job security and pay are dependent on them.”

“The divide in who does what when it comes to housework persists because of our gendered expectation for women to perform emotional labor. We are the ones who decide whether to do a task ourselves or to delegate it to someone else, and doing physical labor is often the easier road.”

“Like domestic labor, emotional labor is generally dismissed and not labeled work, but research shows it can be just as exhausting as paid work. Emotional labor can lead to insomnia and family conflict, according to a study published in Personnel Psychology.”

“One of the biggest shifts is that much of the conversation about emotional labor has left its original sphere of the workplace and moved to the home.”

CEFR level