Linked – Time to Talk About Emotional Labor

This is an important topic we don’t discuss in the workplace. I’d argue that we lie about it much more often than we talk honestly about it.

Emotional labor is … well emotional. Yes, occasionally our workload is too much. And occasionally customers are jerks. We might say to ourselves that this doesn’t happen very often, and we can deal with it. Think of it more as the exception rather than the rule. My take on emotional labor is when employees are dealing with constant frustration and the company isn’t helping. At some point, employees say to themselves, my mental health is more important than this.

When you work in any service job, there will always be the occasional jerk customer. Sometimes, they are just having a bad day, and sometimes, they are jerks more often than not. Either way, the people on the front lines dealing with these people need solutions. This goes double when the customers are internal.

Words about your workplace’s great culture ring hollow when team members regularly find themselves putting up with jerks. That’s not a great culture. That’s extra emotional labor—labor that likely doesn’t come close to matching what they are paid.

We don’t talk about this in terms of emotional labor. We talk about being resilient, staying composed, etc. We don’t talk about how exhausting it is to know that every day at work, someone is likely to yell at you, let alone know that when it happens, there will be no solution to prevent it from happening again. If they take the time to complain and ask for a solution, they’ll be told it’s “just part of the job.”

As if that makes it OK to act unprofessionally in the workplace.

As I’ve said before, your culture is defined by the worst behavior tolerated. Whenever you tell someone in a support position to deal with that behavior directed at them, you are slightly defining the culture downward. You’re telling them that all those words about professionalism and collegiality that define your culture are nothing more than fancy words to you. When push comes to shove, that top salesperson, startup founder, executive assistant, and law firm partner, who everyone tries to avoid, defines your culture for you.

They are also adding to your worker’s workload with extra emotional labor. Don’t be surprised when they decide the job isn’t worth it. As the quote above says, our mental health is more important than this.

https://www.hrbartender.com/2024/leadership-and-management/time-talk-emotional-labor/

Follow these topics: Career, Mental Health