The almost last essay is here but I still don't have a title yet for it !
Prof. T. I was wondering how to get your feed back on this essay so that I can correct it before Friday. Since I can't attend any of the afternoon tutoring sessions this week then, I'll see you in class tomorrow.
“We do costumer service” responded Severine, when I once asked my friend and coworker Severine how she will call our job type. This is how the whole discussion on job types, and workers emotions started between us. We were on our way home that night after work and I told her that I learned from my English class that same day that service jobs were considered as “emotional labor” as well as some “physical labor”. She still couldn’t figure out what I was talking about. Then, I told her that, there is a relationship between the type of job people perform and the emotions they display at work and in real life. That’s when she told me that her emotions have nothing to do with her work as at work, she just smiles while taking care of people and keeps her emotions for her real life. In other words, you have to detach all emotions related to this type of job in order to perform it well.Well, that’s what I use to believe too, until the day I read “Exploring the Managed Heart.” from Arlie Hoschild and started wondering what is “emotional labor” how is it related to “physical labor” and “mental labor”; what is emotional labor’s impact on workers private life and at work itself.
But first, let’s define labor to have a better idea of what we are talking about. As per the online merrian-webster dictionary, labor is a “human activity that provides the goods or services in an economy”. That means anyone who works for wages by producing a product or something that is not tangible that we commonly call "service". Its nature has changed through time in America through time. Until the 1800 the type of labor that was practiced in the United States was farming. Millions of enslaved African-Americans were working in the plantations of cotton, sugar, tobacco and rice in the southern region of the U.S. Then what follows is a period of rapid industrialization that was favorable to the massive production and commercialization of goods. In others words the 19th century was more characterized by factory jobs which are commonly known as “physical labor” because of the physical effort they demand. From the advent of the 2000s to present, the type of labor that is practiced is more of service type; demanding more mental implication or certain state of minds from the worker in order to sale it.
Nowadays, we still see both “physical labor” and “mental labor” but in the case of this discussion, we are more concerned by what they both might have in common: the feelings they require workers to produce or to exclude from their consciousness in order to do their job. Hoschild described their individual implications as follows in her book, physical labor “require coordination of mind and arm, mind and finger, and mind and shoulder” while mental labor simply require “mental coordination” (Hoschild 6). But, in trying to draw a line between what they both require from the workers she came up with the term of “emotional labor”.
Apparently, both physical and mental labors imply emotions. But again, let’s define the word emotions. They are “conscious mental reaction subjectively experienced as strong feeling usually toward a specific object and typically accompanied by physiological and behavioral changes in the body.” In this case, one is referring to the feelings of the workers toward their job or, just the feelings induced by the practice of a job on the job, and in their private life.
Emotions for some workers (mental or service jobs) are part of the job requirements for others (both service and physical jobs), it is not a requirement but a consequence of practicing a job that they do not like or enjoy doing for a long time. But the ways they affect both types of workers are different.
For workers who do physical work, officially their work requires nothing more than “strong muscles”. But, in order to do this job one has to deny physical pain and most of the time suffers alienation from self and the job itself. Some of these workers who do not enjoy and like their job have hard time feeling proud of their work. Terkell in his book “Working” used interviews of workers talking about the way they feel about their jobs to expose some of these emotions.
This is the case of Mike Lefevre who works in a steel mill. In his interview “Who Built the Pyramids?”, Mike explains how he feels about his work in these words “It’s hard to take pride in a bridge you’re never gonna cross,…You’re mass-producing things and you never see the end result of it.”. Mike has been doing this job now for many years and because he’s at the beginning of a chain line, he doesn’t see the finished product of his job. As a matter of fact he doesn’t get to appreciate, enjoy, and be proud of this product. He compares the finished product of his work to the pyramids of Egypt that the Pharaohs were so proud of but never showed that they are the result of the hard work of many workers who putted those rocks one on top of another.
As we can see it takes not only physical strength but some mental and emotional stability to perform a “physical labor”. Depending on what exactly one chose to do as (physical) work and for how long, the emotions involved can be surprising. In Mike’s case there is a sense of worthlessness because he spends so much time and energy in his work and he still doesn’t get to point a finished product and say this is the product of my hard work.
Now, in the case of “service jobs” employees, the involvement of emotions in their jobs is a very different case. For most or all these jobs, workers have to be willing to “suppress” some emotions and “display” different types of emotions that may be the ones their employers want them to display in order to be hired.
In fact, management of “service jobs” put a high pressure on their employees to display an attitude that represents the company’s image of always wanting to deliver an outstanding service to their clients. For those customer-service representatives who are not comfortable in dealing with people, these techniques may push them to their limit, and induce them in a situation of stress.
In the article “May I Help You Becomes an Issue in Customer-Service Jobs” published in the New York Times, Mary Williams Walsh explains how customer-service representatives of a Verizon call center are prompted to follow a designed script while on the phone with clients instead of being natural even when the clients are the one initiating a natural dialogue. Employees have to stick to the script that may include trying to make the client buy a product even if he didn’t call to buy a product; asking specific questions even if the client doesn’t want to go through the questionnaire because the management is monitoring the call. As per the Verizon employees “it is not selling that causes the stress, but having to do it according to standard scripts and procedures when common sense tell them not to.” Because for most of the time clients call for specific reasons, even when they call to buy a product they know what they need. Selling a product that has nothing to do with want the clients need just because that product is on sale today put customer service-representatives in a stress that sometimes damage their family life, and moreover their health as per the Bureau of Labor’s statistics.(Williams Walsh 2). The statistics report that nearly half of all reported occupational stress occurs in customer-service jobs and the length of their occupational absence is four times longer than for other jobs.
In the same line, an article published in the state of California (U.S.A.) titled “Faking Happiness Detrimental to Workers” in the newspaper Contra Costa Times emphasizes on the fact that pressure at work burnout employees. This article too is about “call center” employees because of the required perfect behavior they have to have while on the phone with the company’s clients. The employees this article is about are persuaded by their company that customers have the ability to detect trough their voice if they are really happy to serve them or not. The customer-service representatives are therefore given mirrors so they can see their own image while on the phone with clients. The image of their face is correlated to the sound of their voice and the emotions they are feeling in that moment. So, they have to smile while on the phone, suppress all negative feelings, and “fake” positive ones in order to finish well the transaction.
The consequence of this is that employees and up having a mood swing issue because they lose the ability to distinguish the limit between the real happiness and the fake one. They fake their behavior or get confused when they have to be real, and take it too personal at work when they are supposed to fake it; they end up being sad or depressive. As Burling reported it in his article “What really struck us were these pockets of happy and pockets of very sad.”(1). these employees are losing themselves in the name of the practice of customer-service.
As we saw it with Mike in “Who Build the Pyramids?” the excess of “physical labor” induce the workers to feel certain emotions that are not always positive. For people who do “service job” it is even worse because the emotional state of being in which they have to be in order to perform their jobs are not in some cases genuine. The companies dictate to their employees ways of making the client believe that the emotion he perceives from them is genuine. Moreover companies are making applicants for customer-service position ability to induce the client to have a positive attitude toward them a job requirement and criteria of promotion for the employees that are already working for them.
In any case, maybe people should start choosing their carriers in function of what they are good at, and more what they enjoy doing. Because as mentioned by Burling in his article, the happiest workers he observed were the ones that weren’t forced by their bosses to endure the emotional pressure from clients and the ones who chose to do the jobs they like the most. These people have a tendency of having fun and enjoying their jobs, because they are just good at doing them and don’t have to fake their feelings and emotions while doing them. In others words, working is like doing one their hobbies.
But first, let’s define labor to have a better idea of what we are talking about. As per the online merrian-webster dictionary, labor is a “human activity that provides the goods or services in an economy”. That means anyone who works for wages by producing a product or something that is not tangible that we commonly call "service". Its nature has changed through time in America through time. Until the 1800 the type of labor that was practiced in the United States was farming. Millions of enslaved African-Americans were working in the plantations of cotton, sugar, tobacco and rice in the southern region of the U.S. Then what follows is a period of rapid industrialization that was favorable to the massive production and commercialization of goods. In others words the 19th century was more characterized by factory jobs which are commonly known as “physical labor” because of the physical effort they demand. From the advent of the 2000s to present, the type of labor that is practiced is more of service type; demanding more mental implication or certain state of minds from the worker in order to sale it.
Nowadays, we still see both “physical labor” and “mental labor” but in the case of this discussion, we are more concerned by what they both might have in common: the feelings they require workers to produce or to exclude from their consciousness in order to do their job. Hoschild described their individual implications as follows in her book, physical labor “require coordination of mind and arm, mind and finger, and mind and shoulder” while mental labor simply require “mental coordination” (Hoschild 6). But, in trying to draw a line between what they both require from the workers she came up with the term of “emotional labor”.
Apparently, both physical and mental labors imply emotions. But again, let’s define the word emotions. They are “conscious mental reaction subjectively experienced as strong feeling usually toward a specific object and typically accompanied by physiological and behavioral changes in the body.” In this case, one is referring to the feelings of the workers toward their job or, just the feelings induced by the practice of a job on the job, and in their private life.
Emotions for some workers (mental or service jobs) are part of the job requirements for others (both service and physical jobs), it is not a requirement but a consequence of practicing a job that they do not like or enjoy doing for a long time. But the ways they affect both types of workers are different.
For workers who do physical work, officially their work requires nothing more than “strong muscles”. But, in order to do this job one has to deny physical pain and most of the time suffers alienation from self and the job itself. Some of these workers who do not enjoy and like their job have hard time feeling proud of their work. Terkell in his book “Working” used interviews of workers talking about the way they feel about their jobs to expose some of these emotions.
This is the case of Mike Lefevre who works in a steel mill. In his interview “Who Built the Pyramids?”, Mike explains how he feels about his work in these words “It’s hard to take pride in a bridge you’re never gonna cross,…You’re mass-producing things and you never see the end result of it.”. Mike has been doing this job now for many years and because he’s at the beginning of a chain line, he doesn’t see the finished product of his job. As a matter of fact he doesn’t get to appreciate, enjoy, and be proud of this product. He compares the finished product of his work to the pyramids of Egypt that the Pharaohs were so proud of but never showed that they are the result of the hard work of many workers who putted those rocks one on top of another.
As we can see it takes not only physical strength but some mental and emotional stability to perform a “physical labor”. Depending on what exactly one chose to do as (physical) work and for how long, the emotions involved can be surprising. In Mike’s case there is a sense of worthlessness because he spends so much time and energy in his work and he still doesn’t get to point a finished product and say this is the product of my hard work.
Now, in the case of “service jobs” employees, the involvement of emotions in their jobs is a very different case. For most or all these jobs, workers have to be willing to “suppress” some emotions and “display” different types of emotions that may be the ones their employers want them to display in order to be hired.
In fact, management of “service jobs” put a high pressure on their employees to display an attitude that represents the company’s image of always wanting to deliver an outstanding service to their clients. For those customer-service representatives who are not comfortable in dealing with people, these techniques may push them to their limit, and induce them in a situation of stress.
In the article “May I Help You Becomes an Issue in Customer-Service Jobs” published in the New York Times, Mary Williams Walsh explains how customer-service representatives of a Verizon call center are prompted to follow a designed script while on the phone with clients instead of being natural even when the clients are the one initiating a natural dialogue. Employees have to stick to the script that may include trying to make the client buy a product even if he didn’t call to buy a product; asking specific questions even if the client doesn’t want to go through the questionnaire because the management is monitoring the call. As per the Verizon employees “it is not selling that causes the stress, but having to do it according to standard scripts and procedures when common sense tell them not to.” Because for most of the time clients call for specific reasons, even when they call to buy a product they know what they need. Selling a product that has nothing to do with want the clients need just because that product is on sale today put customer service-representatives in a stress that sometimes damage their family life, and moreover their health as per the Bureau of Labor’s statistics.(Williams Walsh 2). The statistics report that nearly half of all reported occupational stress occurs in customer-service jobs and the length of their occupational absence is four times longer than for other jobs.
In the same line, an article published in the state of California (U.S.A.) titled “Faking Happiness Detrimental to Workers” in the newspaper Contra Costa Times emphasizes on the fact that pressure at work burnout employees. This article too is about “call center” employees because of the required perfect behavior they have to have while on the phone with the company’s clients. The employees this article is about are persuaded by their company that customers have the ability to detect trough their voice if they are really happy to serve them or not. The customer-service representatives are therefore given mirrors so they can see their own image while on the phone with clients. The image of their face is correlated to the sound of their voice and the emotions they are feeling in that moment. So, they have to smile while on the phone, suppress all negative feelings, and “fake” positive ones in order to finish well the transaction.
The consequence of this is that employees and up having a mood swing issue because they lose the ability to distinguish the limit between the real happiness and the fake one. They fake their behavior or get confused when they have to be real, and take it too personal at work when they are supposed to fake it; they end up being sad or depressive. As Burling reported it in his article “What really struck us were these pockets of happy and pockets of very sad.”(1). these employees are losing themselves in the name of the practice of customer-service.
As we saw it with Mike in “Who Build the Pyramids?” the excess of “physical labor” induce the workers to feel certain emotions that are not always positive. For people who do “service job” it is even worse because the emotional state of being in which they have to be in order to perform their jobs are not in some cases genuine. The companies dictate to their employees ways of making the client believe that the emotion he perceives from them is genuine. Moreover companies are making applicants for customer-service position ability to induce the client to have a positive attitude toward them a job requirement and criteria of promotion for the employees that are already working for them.
In any case, maybe people should start choosing their carriers in function of what they are good at, and more what they enjoy doing. Because as mentioned by Burling in his article, the happiest workers he observed were the ones that weren’t forced by their bosses to endure the emotional pressure from clients and the ones who chose to do the jobs they like the most. These people have a tendency of having fun and enjoying their jobs, because they are just good at doing them and don’t have to fake their feelings and emotions while doing them. In others words, working is like doing one their hobbies.
Hi Mariama -
ReplyDeleteThis is a great draft - I'll make some announcements in class that will answer your question about getting feedback, but here's a start:
- try to stay away from falling back on the dictionary for your definitions - instead think about what your texts can tell you about these terms in relationship to what you're interested in exploring.
- the conversation with your co-worker is a great 'hook' or place to start - but I wonder about when you say you're disagreeing with her. Could it be that her way of describing how she deals with emotions reveals something about how emotional labor is affecting her?