Emotional labor refers to managing one's emotions to fulfill job requirements, such as suppressing negative feelings and displaying positive emotions. It involves three main strategies: surface acting, where displayed emotions don't match internal feelings; deep acting, trying to internally feel displayed emotions; and genuine expression when internal and displayed emotions align. Emotional labor is common in customer service jobs and can lead to emotional exhaustion and burnout if not managed properly. It disproportionately impacts women, who often shoulder more responsibility for emotional labor both at work and home through caretaking duties. Organizations can help employees by establishing display rules, improving emotional intelligence, and recognizing emotional labor in performance evaluations.

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Emotional Labour
Dr. Arlie Russell Hochschild
The term was coined by sociologist Dr. Arlie Russell Hochschild in her 1983 book “The Managed
Heart” in which Hochschild described emotional labour as having to suppress feelings for the sake
of other people’s “proper state of mind.” In particular, Hochschild wrote that emotional labour has
to do with managing emotions to fulfill the requirements of a job. It involves publicly showing
certain emotion displays while hiding other emotions like demands of a work role. For example, if
you got a job at Disney World, it is expect it would be a part of your job to provide service with a
smile regardless of how you are actually feeling.
According to Hochschild, emotional Labour occurs when employees have face-to-face or voice
contact with the public, are required to produce a particular emotional state in another such as the
customer or client and these emotional adjustments are monitored by their manager. Emotional
labour is measured as the frequency, variety, length and intensity of the emotions required in
particular occupations. The assumption is that the greater the frequency, variety, length and
intensity of emotional display, the greater will be the emotional exhaustion experienced by
employees.

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Emotional Labour
The original definition of emotional labour generally refers to situations when someone needs to
manage or suppress their own emotions while at work. For example, customer service and retail
jobs require large amounts of emotional labour as the worker has to appear happy for their shift
even when they’re having a bad day. This means that we can’t just look at physical labour when
we think about jobs, we must take into account that many roles also require a lot of emotional
labour. It’s an invisible but important work skill that requires more energy than we may realize,
it’s simply relational instead of task based.
Emotional Labour occurs when workers are paid, in part, to manage and control their emotions.
Traditionally, we've seen this in service-oriented professions. But service excellence is now a key
driver of success in most organizations, so elements of emotional Labour are present in almost all
workplaces. It's important to understand the impact of emotional Labour, and how it affects
workers.
Emotions at work are an important part of company life. Help people understand their reactions to
emotional Labour, and develop policies and procedures to reduce the negative impact of
emotional Labour. These are ways to improve overall performance and worker satisfaction.

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The adverse effects of emotional Labour are also why the concept of emotional Labour is deeply
tied to worker rights while physical Labourers are at least aware of the exhaustion that
accompanies their work, people whose work requires extensive emotional Labour may not be
aware of emotional exhaustion and burnout. Health problems linked with emotional Labour
include hypertension, heart disease and higher chances of developing cancer and workers going
through one of these issues may not know that emotional Labour could be a potential factor,
among many, causing these problems.
What are the consequences of Emotional Labour?
Emotional Labour is like physical Labour, effortful and fatiguing when done repeatedly all day
long, and can be costly in terms of performance errors, Emotional exhaustion and job burnout,
especially when surface acting because it results in feeling inauthentic. Research has also shown
that the anxiety and fatigue from surface acting spills over to harm home life, in the form of
reduced helping at home, insomnia, and increased alcohol consumption.
Emotional exhaustion
It is a chronic state of physical and emotional depletion that results from excessive job, personal
demands, and or continuous stress. It describes a feeling of being emotionally overextended and
exhausted by one's work. It is manifested by both physical fatigue and a sense of feeling
psychologically and emotionally "drained". People experiencing emotional exhaustion often feel
like they have no power or control over what happens in life. They may feel “stuck” or “trapped”
in a situation. Emotional exhaustion is one of the signs of burnout.
Job Burnout
It is a state of emotional, physical, and mental exhaustion caused by excessive and prolonged
stress. It occurs when you feel overwhelmed, emotionally drained, and unable to meet constant
demands. As the stress continues, you begin to lose the interest and motivation that led you to take
on a certain role in the first place. Burnout reduces productivity and saps your energy, leaving you
feeling increasingly helpless, hopeless, cynical, and resentful. Eventually, you may feel like you
have nothing more to give.

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3 Common strategies for Emotional Labour
There are three types of emotional labour strategies: surface acting, genuine expression and deep
acting.
In Surface acting, people are showing or trying to show a different emotion than the ones that
they are truly experiencing. For example, in a happy theme park a worker who is surface acting
may be smiling as they sell cotton candy to customers while inside feeling angry toward their co-
worker. The emotion does not match the emotion displayed.
In Deep acting, workers try to regulate their feelings not just their emotional display by trying
to change their thought patterns. Workers in deep acting will try to make their true emotions in
line with the emotions expected of them on the job. For example in a theme park a worker who is
deep acting may try to shift their emotions from anger by focusing on their role as someone who
can be part of providing a once in a lifetime experience to a family. Deep acting appears to have a
positive effect on performance without having the same well-being negative consequences as
surface acting.
In Genuine acting, which occurs when the employee’s genuine emotion matches the ‘required’
emotional display, has been suggested as a third strategy to manage emotional job demands. For
example, ‘A nurse who feels sympathy at the sight of an injured child has no need to “act”. When
an employee is expressing genuine emotions they do not experience emotional difference and
hence, the emotion may be displayed with little or no effort and they may not suffer from the
negative outcomes.
The three EL strategies are considered to be independent of one another, and hence, an employee
may engage in all three strategies (surface, deep and genuine) in a given day. However, little
information is known about the characteristics of employees who favour a particular strategy or
whether there are distinct groups of people who prefer a particular strategy or combination of EL
strategies.

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Implications for Retail Organizations
It's important for workers to understand the impact that emotional Labour has on their
performance. However, it's essential that organizations are also aware of this requirement, so they
can find ways to provide support to their workers, and help them deal with the impact of
emotional Labour. Service workers typically need to perform in a certain manner if they're going
to provide high quality service. This is usually defined by management, then strictly regulated and
monitored. For example, customer service rules might be 'The customer is always right,' or
'Always greet customers with a smile. Here are some common strategies that organizations use to
help their staff deal with the demands of emotional Labour:
Use buffering
Companies may assign front-end personnel to manage the emotional demands and needs of
customers. By the time customers reach back-end workers, they can concentrate on business.
Teach 'display' rules
These are organizationally approved norms or standards that workers learn through observation,
instruction, feedback, and reinforcement. Staff are taught how to act, and they may even be given
scripts to use when dealing directly with clients. Therapists are taught to act neutrally, retail
workers are taught to act positively, and bill collectors are often taught to act aggressive.
Combining these display rules with company culture is very important.
Teach problem-solving techniques
To move workers beyond using scripts or relying on other display rules, some companies help
their staff solve problems more effectively. This helps people build confidence, and reduce their
negative reactions to angry or unpredictable situations. The better that workers are able to deal
with problems, the more likely they are to resolve interpersonal issues before they lead to negative
emotions.

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Improve emotional intelligence
The ability to recognize other people's emotions is an effective way to reduce the burden of
emotional Labour. Building empathy and using other emotional intelligence tools help reduce the
likelihood that emotional conflict will lead to emotional exhaustion.
Bring emotional Labour into the performance evaluation process
Organizations can recognize the importance of emotional Labour by measuring workers'
emotional effort factors and commitment to customer service. How well do workers deal with
angry people? What type of attitude do they bring to work every day? Do they show tolerance and
patience? When workers are rewarded for their emotional Labour, it provides an incentive for
them to show organizationally accepted emotions more often.
Emotional labour and Women
Although emotional labour has come to have an all-encompassing definition of the emotional
management we do in our everyday lives, the term was originally coined by sociologist Arlie
Hochschild to mean the faking, suppressing, magnifying or altering of emotions in the
employment realm. Think of the customer service representative in a retail store who is repeatedly
told to ‘To become happy after being sad’ to prevent the customer from having a negative store
experience.

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In what ways women become a part?
Studies have shown that of all the employed women in India, almost half belong to the service
industry. But this is not only about the percentage of women participating in an industry that
demands extensive ‘emotional labour’ everyday, it is also the gendered implications of exercising
this labour in a deeply patriarchal society that we must recognize. Think of all the times a woman
flight attendant has been expected to maintain a ‘pleasant disposition’ in the face of sexual
harassment by a male ‘customer’, just because her job requires her to do so.
But such ‘emotional labour’ is not only a formal demand that bears grave consequences for
women, it is a societal expectation for women in general. The ability to perform such labour is
often seen as an natural quality of women workers, consistent with the gendered notion that
women are naturally more nurturing, caring, inherent and empathetic, which casts their emotional.
How Emotional Labour Affects Women's Careers?
Many women’s jobs don’t end when they leave the office. They’re often responsible for care
taking for their children and handling the household chores. Studies show that women shoulder
the majority of responsibility in relationships, both in our careers and at home. Not only they are
underpaid across professions, but much of this invisible work, known as "emotional Labour" goes
uncompensated and unrecognized. In fact a recent report from the United Nations found that
women do 2.6 times the amount of unpaid work that men do noting that vital jobs like taking care
of the children and the many tasks that come with them like picking them up from school, caring
for elderly parents, managing household expenses and completing chores like cleaning and
cooking become women's responsibilities.
The way in which emotional Labour affects women’s careers is twofold, because both at home
and at work, women are expected to shoulder the bulk of this Labour. Women who are performing
all of the “worry work” at home are likely stretching their mental capacity to the limit, which can
hold them back from doing their best work. In the workplace, the expectation for women to
cushion their responses, manage the emotions of their peers and make their workplace “pleasant”
can hold them back from doing the work that will help them get ahead.

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Emotional Labour, Women and Work Life Balance.
The “balance” is a myth. Its push and pull. No one ever asks men if they’re staying on top of the
laundry and vacuuming while they’re killing it in the office, so try not to undercut the success by
pointing to things left undone in other areas of women life.
New study shows women do more emotional labour.
The 2021 Women in the Workplace report from McKinsey found that women are far more likely
than men to help their teams manage time and work-life balance and provide emotional support.
Over the last year, emotional support, time management skills and work-life balance have become
drastically more important and difficult in the workplace and women leaders were far more likely
than men to step in and do that work for their teams, according to the latest iteration of McKinsey
and LeanIn.org's annual Women in the Workplace report.
Senior leaders who identify as women were 60% more likely to provide emotional support to their
teams, 24% more likely to ensure their teams' workload is manageable and 26% more likely to
help team members navigate work/life challenges, according to the report. In addition, about one
in five women senior leaders spend a substantial amount of time on DEI(Diversity, equity and
inclusion) work that is not central to their job, compared to less than one in 10 male senior
leaders.
There is also likely some tie between the data on the extra emotional work performed by women
and the fact that 42% of women report being burnt out, compared to 35% of men. One in three
women also said that they are considering downshifting their careers in response to the burnout.

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Factors Influencing Emotional Labour
Individual Factors
Gender
Earlier studies showed that gender has differential effect on emotional labour. In general, females
are more efficient in perceiving non-verbal cues and possess more skills to articulate emotions in
comparison with the males. In addition females are more empathetic and are likely to apply
emotions more appropriately in comparison with the males. Thus, females are more inclined to
occupy those occupations that demand more emotional labour. As females are more efficient in
noticing, accepting and regulating their emotions, it can be presumed that they can perform
surface acting superiorly in comparison with the males.
Marital status
Marital status may affect the way an individual performs emotional labour. Whether an individual
is married or unmarried influences there adoption of emotional labour strategy. The study
conducted on nurses to analyse the influence of marital status on emotional labour reported that
married employees adopt surface acting more frequently, while there are insignificant differences
between married and unmarried employees with regard to deep acting. However, there are very
few studies that have analysed how marital status affects emotional labour.
Educational qualification
Educational qualification may have differential effect on how an individual performs emotional
labour. The employees are significantly different in performing emotional labour on the basis of
their educational qualification. Further, the employees having qualification below graduation are
significantly different from employees having professional degree in performing emotional
labour. However, there are very few studies that have considered educational qualification as an
antecedent of emotional labour.

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Income
Income is one of the significant motivating factors that affect how an individual performs their
work role. A research studies suggested that performing surface acting strategy of emotional
labour is affected by the income. In addition, performing surface acting would have lesser
consequences such as job dissatisfaction and job stress when there are monetary rewards.
However, income unimportantly affects how an individual performs deep acting. Thus it can be
presumed that the employees who are getting higher income are likely to adopt deep acting over
surface acting
Situational factors
Frequency of interactions
Frequency describes how repeatedly interpersonal communication with the customers happens
and is one of the situational factors. The employees who are in frequent contact with the
customers require the active regulation of their emotional display. In addition, previous researches
confirmed that the frequency of interactions was positively associated with both surface acting
and deep acting strategies of emotional labour.
Duration of interactions
Duration describes generally how long an interaction with the customers takes time. It is reported
that the interactions having short duration necessitate less effort in comparison to longer
interactions. The short interactions are generally more scripted while, longer interactions are less
scripted, demanding more stamina and active emotional regulation.
Organisational factors
Work demand
The work demand includes the aspects like work environment, workload and work patterns
pertaining to a job. As per the authors understanding there is rarely any research study that have
examined the role work demand and how it affects the employee’s emotional labour.

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Appealing labour
Appealing labour is an essential part of the service sector especially, in the branded clothing retail
organisations. Organisations can implement different practices for instance, dress code,
adjustment of tone and grooming specifications or aesthetic training to offer superior services.
The previous documentation on the concept of aesthetic labour largely emphasized on how
aesthetic labour of employees can be utilised for organisational benefits such as better customer
attraction and corporate image.