Emotional Labor in Service Work

Abstract

Emotional labor is crucial to the performance of interac tive service work, jobs that involve direct interaction with customers or clients. In such jobs, employers frequently try to manage the emotions of their workers, while workers try to control the emotional responses of service recipients. Management techniques for directing and monitoring interactive service workers extend managerial control to aspects of workers' selves usually considered outside of the scope of employer intervention. Bureaucratic controls are also extended beyond the boundaries of the organization through the management of customer behavior. While workers and consumers derive some benefits from the routinization of service interactions, its instrumental approach to human personality and social interaction raises troubling moral issues.