What Is Emotional Labor?

Table of ContentsView AllTable of ContentsHow Emotional Labor ManifestsWho Bears the Burden Of Emotional Labor?The Impact of Emotional LaborWhat To Do

Table of ContentsView All

View All

Table of Contents

How Emotional Labor Manifests

Who Bears the Burden Of Emotional Labor?

The Impact of Emotional Labor

What To Do

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It can be an employer’s rule that employees may not react to customer mistreatment, a partner’s presumption that the other person will handle housework and life logistics, or an acquaintance wanting an explanation for why their behavior is problematic.

The Origin Of The Term

Emotional labor is often conflated and used interchangeably with the term “emotion work,” which is a term for the social tasks one performs to satisfy others. Hochschild coined the term “emotion work” in an essay in 1979.

Though emotion work was intended to be used for separate situations than emotional labor, the two have been considered interchangeable in recent years. The evolution of emotional labor as a term to also encompass demands outside the workplace was solidified with the release of Gemma Hartley’s book Fed Up: Women, Emotional Labor, and the Way Forward in 2018.

Emotional labor can manifest in multiple settings. The most common ones are listed below.

Workplace

Emotional labor in the workplace consists of practices and rules for employees that are implemented for the sake of satisfying customers. They center around employees needing to manage their emotions and not express them to others. Here are a few examples of emotional labor in the workplace:

Partnership

In intimate settings such as with loved ones, emotional labor may show up in quieter ways than in the workplace. Here are a few ways people are asked to perform emotional labor in intimate settings:

Social Networking

Mental Health Effects of Reading Negative Comments Online

It shouldn’t be surprising that it is marginalized people who generally bear the burden of emotional labor. People demanding it are generally doing so from a place of privilege.

BIPOC

The burden to explain racism and the racist acts of white people are often placed on people of color. However, amongBIPOC, the burden of behaving to appease White people falls most heavily on Black people.

Think of their increased risk ofpolice brutality,theirhigher than average chance of being victims of domestic abuse,or the substandard medical care they often receive.Yet, in those instances and many others, Black people are forced to behave in a way that helps White people view them as people such as maintaining politeness in the face of overt racism.

People Of Marginalized Genders

People who exist outside of the cisgender label are often expected to explain their identities to cis people. When a person is transgender,gender non-conforming, ornonbinaryand a cis person requests information about their identity, that is a request for emotional labor.

Women

The unspoken expectation that in a nuclear family unit, it is the woman’s job to do everything from care for children to manage finances to acquire home supplies is also a form of emotional labor.

This is the clearest version of what was formerly called emotion work— conforming to the expectations of one’s role in society for the sake of pleasing others. Assuming that if there is conflict, the woman will initiate the discussion around it is an expectation of emotional labor on the woman’s part.

Employees

In a society oriented around customer service and treating people as if “the customer is always right,” employees are often left to suffer. That’s because the focus on keeping employees quiet and smiling when customers are mistreating them is unfair to employees.

Despite having been labeledessential workersduring the COVID-19 global pandemic, service employees are often low-paid laborers. When you add the difficulties of not being allowed to speak up for oneself on the job to physical labor and often unrewarding job tasks, this can make employment particularly hard for employees in these sectors.

For marginalized people such as Black people, it would be worth exploring what the impact is on theirmental health, but that has not been studied at length yet.

What To Do Instead Of Demanding Labor From Others

Emotional labor does not need to be the go-to-way that people deal with situations, and those on whom the burden is placed would be better served if it weren’t. These are some ways you can avoid demanding the emotional labor of others.

Conduct Your Own Research

If a marginalized person tells you that your behavior was racist, sexist, prejudiced, or otherwise problematic, do your own research to discern why.

Please do not ask the person whom you have offended to explain it to you. Instead, use a search engine and enter the keywords you referenced in the statement you were told was offensive.

For example, in a Facebook group for women, a woman asked, “Do nonbinary people join women’s and men’s groups?” Rather than requiring nonbinary people to explain who does and doesn’t join what groups, the person in the women’s group could have googled “what spaces do nonbinary people join?” or “do nonbinary people join social groups for all genders?”

View Situations Through Others' Eyes

For those who find themselves expecting others to do invisible, unpaid work to keep life running smoothly, it can be helpful to view situations through the person’s eyes. For example, if you are a husband who expects your wife to arrange childcare, clean the house, and shop for groceries, you could try doing a couple of those things in one day to see how much energy they take.

Sometimes when we step into other people’s shoes, we can see the difficulties and challenges they face. That, in turn, can lead us to appreciate others more for the work they do and even to take on some of that work ourselves so that their burden is lessened.

Craft Fair Workplace Policies

Though it isn’t illegal to demand employees always offer service with a smile or not react to mistreatment, it is a way to have less happy employees.

If you care about the well-being of the people you employ, craft workplace policies centered around fairness for all people, not only customers.

Create new systems that enable autonomy for employees, such as not punishing when employees speak up for themselves. This doesn’t have to lead to melee but rather can be done in an organized, structured fashion built into employee codes and workplace guidelines. In turn, employers could have workers who are less emotionally exhausted.

13 SourcesVerywell Mind uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.Arlie Russell Hochschild.The Managed Heart: Commercialization of Human Feeling. University Of California Press; 2012. doi:10.1525/9780520951853Grandey A.Emotional Labor in the 21st Century. Routledge; 2013. doi:10.4324/9780203100851Hochschild AR.Emotion work, feeling rules, and social structure.American Journal of Sociology. 1979;85(3):551-575.Hartley G.Fed up: Emotional Labor, Women, and the Way Forward. Harperone; 2018.Grandey AA, Houston L, Avery DR. Fake it to make it?Emotional labor reduces the racial disparity in service performance judgments.Journal of Management. 2018;45(5):2163-2192. doi:10.1177/0149206318757019Alang S, McAlpine D, McCreedy E, Hardeman R.Police brutality and Black health: Setting the agenda for public health scholars.American Journal of Public Health. 2017;107(5): doi:10.2105/ajph.2017.303691Jordan-Zachery JS.Shadow Bodies: Black Women, Ideology, Representation, and Politics. Rutgers University Press; 2017.Glover K.Can you hear me?: How implicit bias creates a disparate impact in maternal healthcare for black women.Campbell Law Review. 2021;43(2).Kteily N, Bruneau E, Waytz A, Cotterill S.The ascent of man: Theoretical and empirical evidence for blatant dehumanization.Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 2015;109(5):901-931. doi:10.1037/pspp0000048Mary-Frances Winters.Black Fatigue: How Racism Erodes the Mind, Body, and Spirit. Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc; 2020.Schmitz RM, Robinson BA, Tabler J, Welch B, Rafaqut S.LGBTQ+ Latino/a young people’s interpretations of stigma and mental health: An intersectional minority stress perspective.Society and Mental Health. 2019;10(2):215686931984724. doi:10.1177/2156869319847248Cho Y-N, Rutherford BN, Park J.The impact of emotional labor in a retail environment.Journal of Business Research. 2013;66(5): doi:10.1016/j.jbusres.2012.04.001Shellae Versey H, Cogburn CC, Wilkins CL, Joseph N.Appropriated racial oppression: Implications for mental health in Whites and Blacks.Social Science & Medicine. 2019;230:295-302. doi:10.1016/j.socscimed.2019.03.014

13 Sources

Verywell Mind uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.Arlie Russell Hochschild.The Managed Heart: Commercialization of Human Feeling. University Of California Press; 2012. doi:10.1525/9780520951853Grandey A.Emotional Labor in the 21st Century. Routledge; 2013. doi:10.4324/9780203100851Hochschild AR.Emotion work, feeling rules, and social structure.American Journal of Sociology. 1979;85(3):551-575.Hartley G.Fed up: Emotional Labor, Women, and the Way Forward. Harperone; 2018.Grandey AA, Houston L, Avery DR. Fake it to make it?Emotional labor reduces the racial disparity in service performance judgments.Journal of Management. 2018;45(5):2163-2192. doi:10.1177/0149206318757019Alang S, McAlpine D, McCreedy E, Hardeman R.Police brutality and Black health: Setting the agenda for public health scholars.American Journal of Public Health. 2017;107(5): doi:10.2105/ajph.2017.303691Jordan-Zachery JS.Shadow Bodies: Black Women, Ideology, Representation, and Politics. Rutgers University Press; 2017.Glover K.Can you hear me?: How implicit bias creates a disparate impact in maternal healthcare for black women.Campbell Law Review. 2021;43(2).Kteily N, Bruneau E, Waytz A, Cotterill S.The ascent of man: Theoretical and empirical evidence for blatant dehumanization.Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 2015;109(5):901-931. doi:10.1037/pspp0000048Mary-Frances Winters.Black Fatigue: How Racism Erodes the Mind, Body, and Spirit. Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc; 2020.Schmitz RM, Robinson BA, Tabler J, Welch B, Rafaqut S.LGBTQ+ Latino/a young people’s interpretations of stigma and mental health: An intersectional minority stress perspective.Society and Mental Health. 2019;10(2):215686931984724. doi:10.1177/2156869319847248Cho Y-N, Rutherford BN, Park J.The impact of emotional labor in a retail environment.Journal of Business Research. 2013;66(5): doi:10.1016/j.jbusres.2012.04.001Shellae Versey H, Cogburn CC, Wilkins CL, Joseph N.Appropriated racial oppression: Implications for mental health in Whites and Blacks.Social Science & Medicine. 2019;230:295-302. doi:10.1016/j.socscimed.2019.03.014

Verywell Mind uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.

Arlie Russell Hochschild.The Managed Heart: Commercialization of Human Feeling. University Of California Press; 2012. doi:10.1525/9780520951853Grandey A.Emotional Labor in the 21st Century. Routledge; 2013. doi:10.4324/9780203100851Hochschild AR.Emotion work, feeling rules, and social structure.American Journal of Sociology. 1979;85(3):551-575.Hartley G.Fed up: Emotional Labor, Women, and the Way Forward. Harperone; 2018.Grandey AA, Houston L, Avery DR. Fake it to make it?Emotional labor reduces the racial disparity in service performance judgments.Journal of Management. 2018;45(5):2163-2192. doi:10.1177/0149206318757019Alang S, McAlpine D, McCreedy E, Hardeman R.Police brutality and Black health: Setting the agenda for public health scholars.American Journal of Public Health. 2017;107(5): doi:10.2105/ajph.2017.303691Jordan-Zachery JS.Shadow Bodies: Black Women, Ideology, Representation, and Politics. Rutgers University Press; 2017.Glover K.Can you hear me?: How implicit bias creates a disparate impact in maternal healthcare for black women.Campbell Law Review. 2021;43(2).Kteily N, Bruneau E, Waytz A, Cotterill S.The ascent of man: Theoretical and empirical evidence for blatant dehumanization.Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 2015;109(5):901-931. doi:10.1037/pspp0000048Mary-Frances Winters.Black Fatigue: How Racism Erodes the Mind, Body, and Spirit. Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc; 2020.Schmitz RM, Robinson BA, Tabler J, Welch B, Rafaqut S.LGBTQ+ Latino/a young people’s interpretations of stigma and mental health: An intersectional minority stress perspective.Society and Mental Health. 2019;10(2):215686931984724. doi:10.1177/2156869319847248Cho Y-N, Rutherford BN, Park J.The impact of emotional labor in a retail environment.Journal of Business Research. 2013;66(5): doi:10.1016/j.jbusres.2012.04.001Shellae Versey H, Cogburn CC, Wilkins CL, Joseph N.Appropriated racial oppression: Implications for mental health in Whites and Blacks.Social Science & Medicine. 2019;230:295-302. doi:10.1016/j.socscimed.2019.03.014

Arlie Russell Hochschild.The Managed Heart: Commercialization of Human Feeling. University Of California Press; 2012. doi:10.1525/9780520951853

Grandey A.Emotional Labor in the 21st Century. Routledge; 2013. doi:10.4324/9780203100851

Hochschild AR.Emotion work, feeling rules, and social structure.American Journal of Sociology. 1979;85(3):551-575.

Hartley G.Fed up: Emotional Labor, Women, and the Way Forward. Harperone; 2018.

Grandey AA, Houston L, Avery DR. Fake it to make it?Emotional labor reduces the racial disparity in service performance judgments.Journal of Management. 2018;45(5):2163-2192. doi:10.1177/0149206318757019

Alang S, McAlpine D, McCreedy E, Hardeman R.Police brutality and Black health: Setting the agenda for public health scholars.American Journal of Public Health. 2017;107(5): doi:10.2105/ajph.2017.303691

Jordan-Zachery JS.Shadow Bodies: Black Women, Ideology, Representation, and Politics. Rutgers University Press; 2017.

Glover K.Can you hear me?: How implicit bias creates a disparate impact in maternal healthcare for black women.Campbell Law Review. 2021;43(2).

Kteily N, Bruneau E, Waytz A, Cotterill S.The ascent of man: Theoretical and empirical evidence for blatant dehumanization.Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 2015;109(5):901-931. doi:10.1037/pspp0000048

Mary-Frances Winters.Black Fatigue: How Racism Erodes the Mind, Body, and Spirit. Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc; 2020.

Schmitz RM, Robinson BA, Tabler J, Welch B, Rafaqut S.LGBTQ+ Latino/a young people’s interpretations of stigma and mental health: An intersectional minority stress perspective.Society and Mental Health. 2019;10(2):215686931984724. doi:10.1177/2156869319847248

Cho Y-N, Rutherford BN, Park J.The impact of emotional labor in a retail environment.Journal of Business Research. 2013;66(5): doi:10.1016/j.jbusres.2012.04.001

Shellae Versey H, Cogburn CC, Wilkins CL, Joseph N.Appropriated racial oppression: Implications for mental health in Whites and Blacks.Social Science & Medicine. 2019;230:295-302. doi:10.1016/j.socscimed.2019.03.014

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