This document summarizes a presentation on the emotional labor of teaching information literacy. It defines emotional labor as the dissonance between outwardly displayed emotions and true internal feelings. The presentation discusses the history of research on emotional labor, key concepts, and scenarios that librarians may experience emotional labor. It also provides strategies for mitigating and coping with emotional labor at the individual and institutional level, such as identifying situations that cause emotional stress, developing coping mechanisms, and having employers acknowledge difficult work.

1. Emotional Labor of Teaching Information Literacy:
Impact, Struggle, and Strategies
Lorrie Evans & Karen Sobel / University of Colorado Denver
Association for Learning Development in Higher Education 2020

2. Auraria Library / Denver, Colorado, USA
Shared by the University of Colorado Denver, Metropolitan State University of Denver, and the Community College of
Denver

3. AGENDA
• Introduction
• History of research & work on emotional labor
• Key concepts related to emotional labor
• Emotional labor among academic librarians
• Scenarios
• Identifying trends
• Strategies for mitigating & coping with emotional labor
• Strategies for individuals
• Strategies for institutions
• Discussion

4. DOES THIS SOUND FAMILIAR?
You are a librarian, invited to teach an information literacy
session for an undergraduate writing class (first-year students).
The class starts in 30 minutes. You have lecture notes,
handouts, activities and goals.
But you really don’t want to walk into that room.
Your social energy is subterranean. Physical energy is struggling.
Would much rather sit in a sunbeam with a book.

5. WHAT CAUSED THAT FEELING?
In the chat box, share some of the first things that come to mind!
Why might a librarian (you or someone you know) feel this way?

6. IN THE CLASSROOM—IT’S SHOW TIME!
What image will you project as you…
• Get the classroom ready?
• Greet the students as they walk in?
• Make introductions?
• Teach?
Is the image you project authentic? Is it your true
feelings in the moment? Did your mood change when
the students came in?

7. DEFINITION OF EMOTIONAL LABOR
Emotional labor is the outcome of dissonance between outward-facing
feelings and emotions, or our public face, and those emotions that are truly
felt.
- Arlie Hochschild, The Managed Heart (1983)

8. THE SOCIAL (EMOTIONAL) DISPLAY SELF IS NOT
OUR REAL (EMOTIONAL) SELF.
Creating internal:
• Dissonance
• Lack of harmony
• Disagreement
• Lack of congruence
The image of an emotional
self for display makes me
think of the lyrics to Eleanor
Rigby:
“wearing a face that
she keeps in a jar by
the door”

9. HISTORY AND BACKGROUND ON
EMOTIONAL LABOR
Emotional labor was first discussed by Hochschild (1983) in
relation to people who worked in the service industry:
Outward-facing behavior must adhere to a set of
prescribed norms:
• The customer might be rude and difficult, but as the
employee you need to be pleasant and helpful.
• This sets up the dissonance between truly felt and
displayed emotion.

10. WHAT ARE THE PRESCRIBED BEHAVIORAL NORMS OF
LIBRARIANS?
As educators, librarians provide a service to students, faculty/colleagues and the
community. Along with the service role, librarians teach and perform research.
What does that work look like, behaviorally?
• Professional
• Helpful
• Competent
• Productive

11. MORE FROM HOCHSCHILD: ACTING THE PART
• Deep acting = we outwardly express what we truly feel (deep down).
• Surface acting = We hide what we really feel. We outwardly express the
expected emotion, NOT the true feeling.
The degree to which your emotional expression is controlled or managed
determines the level of “work” you are doing. That work is emotional labor. This
might not be something you know you are doing. You may not feel it at that
moment.

12. THIS ACTING STUFF DOESN’T SEEM INTUITIVE.
True feeling: I really believe that information literacy is important. It’s also important
to have energy and enthusiasm in the class. The students will feel that energy and have a
better experience.
Situational environment: I don’t like the course instructor that I’m working with.
Everything about prepping for this class has been a chore. It’s 8:00am and I am a night
person.
Norm or Expectation: I am so excited to be here today and working with all of you!
Will the expected behavior (Norm or Expectation) require deep or surface
acting?

13. THE IMPACT OF DEEP VS. SURFACE ACTING
Deep acting should involve less emotional labor because we believe in
what we are doing.
The research shows a far more complicated picture:
• Professional identity
• Naturally expressed emotions - no acting! (Diefendorff)
• Lurking variables - confidence, personality, environment

14. THE UPSIDES AND MIXED FEELINGS OF EMOTIONAL LABOR
For many people, the emotional labor
of a job is also what makes it
meaningful.
• Can you think of examples in
your work?
A large body of literature discusses
the mixed positive/negative
emotional labor that many
professions experience
• medical professionals
• educators
• professionals who support people
through all kinds of emergencies

15. THINK ABOUT THE EMOTIONAL LABOR YOU PERFORM.
• Take a few minutes.
• Think about situations in your work that involve emotional labor.
• Make some notes:
• What aspects of the work cause the emotional labor?
• How do you feel immediately after experiencing these situations?
• If you’re having trouble thinking about a scenario of your own, you can use
one of ours: https://tinyurl.com/ya46z8sj
• If you have thoughts to share, you can share them in the chat box.

16. STRATEGIES FOR MITIGATING/COPING WITH
EMOTIONAL LABOR
• institutionally (hopefully proactive)
• individually (often reactive)

17. INDIVIDUAL STRATEGIES
What are steps you can take to mitigate your own emotional labor?
• Identify situations causing emotional labor & how they make you feel.
• Look for patterns, or for situations that continually cause emotional labor.
• Think about:
• Is it reasonable that I am facing these situations?
• Will I develop greater comfort with some of these situations over time?
• Are there colleagues who can help me develop specific coping strategies?
• Seek out training, both for situations and for the emotional labor.
• Work on “scripts” or plans for emotionally laborious situations.
• Talk with your supervisor: Are there ways that you can better balance
emotionally laborious duties?

18. INSTITUTIONAL/DEPARTMENTAL STRATEGIES
• Discuss opportunities for process-related change: Are there “pain points”
where a process could be updated?
• Discuss how emotionally laborious strategies should be allocated.
• Identify and offer trainings.
• Make sure that individuals have work time where they are *not*
performing emotionally laborious work.
• Acknowledge and reward hard work—both emotionally laborious and not.

19. What other strategies can you suggest?
What strategies do your employers use?

20. Discussion

21. WE’LL BE IN TOUCH.
Over the next few days, we’ll read through the chats & any emails or
tweets that viewers share. We’ll respond to individual comments & write
and share on major themes.
Thank you for joining us!

22. Lorrie Evans
Teaching & Learning Program Lead Librarian
University of Colorado Denver
Email lorrie.evans@ucdenver.edu | Twitter:
@LorrieEvans303
Karen Sobel
Teaching & Learning Librarian
University of Colorado Denver
Email karen.sobel@ucdenver.edu
Twitter: @kslovesboooks
Presenters

23. READINGS
Ashforth, B. E., & Humphrey, R. H. (1993). Emotional labor in service roles: The influence of identity. The Academy of Management
Review, 18(1), 88-115. doi:10.2307/258824
Diefendorff, J. M., Croyle, M. H., & Gosserand, R. H. (2005). The dimensionality and antecedents of emotional labor strategies. Journal of
Vocational Behavior, 66(2), 339-357. doi: http://10.1016/j.jvb.2004.02.001
Fouquereau, E., Morin, A. J. S., Lapointe, É., Mokounkolo, R., & Gillet, N. (2019). Emotional labour profiles: Associations with key
predictors and outcomes. Work & Stress, 33(3), 268-294. doi:10.1080/02678373.2018.1502835
Hochschild, A. R. (1983). The managed heart: Commercialization of human feeling. University of California Press.
Hua, L. U. (2018). Slow feeling and quiet being: Women of color teaching in urgent times. New Directions for Teaching and Learning,
2018(153), 77-86. doi:10.1002/tl.20283
Jeung, D., Kim, C., & Chang, S. (2018). Emotional labor and burnout: A review of the literature. Yonsei Medical Journal, 59(2), 187-193.
doi:10.3349/ymj.2018.59.2.187
Julien, H. and Given, L. (2003). Faculty-librarian relationships in the information literacy context: a content analysis of librarians’
expressed attitudes and experiences. Canadian Journal of Information and Library Science, Vol. 27 No. 3, pp. 65-87.
Wharton, A. S. (2009). The sociology of emotional labor. Annual Review of Sociology, 35(1), 147-165. doi:10.1146/annurev-soc-070308-
115944
Winkler, I. (2018). Identity work and emotions: A review. International Journal of Management Reviews, 20(1), 120-133.
doi:10.1111/ijmr.12119
Yin, H., Huang, S., & Chen, G. (2019). The relationships between teachers’ emotional labor and their burnout and satisfaction: A meta-
analytic review. Educational Research Review, 28, 1-18. doi:10.1016/j.edurev.2019.100283