Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Emotional Labor
I was reading about Emotional Labor in chapter 7 of the text and was very surprised at what I read. The text says that flight attendents are expected to have certain emotions as part of there job. This is a very interesting phenonomenon of people being expected to feel certain emotions while on the job. I would much rather the company try to hire flight attendents that did a good job of attending and personally couldn't care less about there smiling faces. I am in a similiar position at my work. At my job I work on computers and I have been asked to be empathetic with the people who are having computer problems as if they are some kind of victim. Atleast 75% of the problems are that employee using the computer innappropriatly or misusing it completely. People yell at me as if I am there broken computer and I constantly have to remind them that is unreasonable communication skills and not a good way to get what they want from me. Its like I'm some kind of therapist and computer technician wraped up in one and it is part of job I have a hard time doing. After hearing about how flight attendents have to act like grown "dolls" I really can't complain though.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Do you tell the people to unplug and reboot? :) JK! When reading this blog I was thinking about how doctors have to "keep face" as well. When someone passes away, you do not see the doctor crying along with you. The doctors have to keep their composure as a professional but also express a shine of empathy. I worked customer service for a few years at a call center and I wanted to strangle some of the people I spoke with. I was expected to read a script and have "key" responses to certain phrases, this did make me sound like a robot and it was not personalized at all, which made the customer feel unimportant. May be if companies just trained their workers to have interpersonal and people skills, we could avoid these problems.
ReplyDeleteEmotional labor seems like a difficult topic. Some jobs require it to do a good job, for example if there was a unhappy or sad looking flight attendant I think it would make the passengers feel uneasy, in an already fearful situation. The same case with Doctors as KRoumel mentioned, it would be so unprofessional if your Doctor started crying while trying to deliver bad news.
ReplyDeleteI know on the other side of things, jobs that are customer centered, always create a burden on the worker. I have had plenty of situations in organizations where I have dealt with dramatic or incompetent customers. However, I think in a situation it is important that the customer feels helped, to the point in which they are hindering your work experience. At which point, if the customer is still unhappy with me or their situation, they will have to look elsewhere for help. I think that dealing with difficult people and not letting it effect your day is an important skill to learn. I have personally gained a lot from keeping my mood positive even in difficult situations.
For the CalWAC conference I attended in Long Beach I flew Jet Blue for the first time. I'd heard a lot of positive things about the airline and was looking forward to the experience. Interestingly, I found it a lot like Southwest, which I've flown quite a bit. The flight attendants and gate staff were pleasant. The aircraft was a bit nicer with more leg room. But the experience was similar to Southwest. Southwest consistently earns high ratings as an employer and for customer service. Although I'm sure employees, especially those with direct public contact, engage in some emotion labor, working for an organization that treats them well likely makes it easier to keep a more positive outlook. At Southwest, employees are invested in the company through profit-sharing, which increases their loyalty to the company.
ReplyDeleteI have to agree that sometimes working in an environment that requires emotion labor can be difficult. I worked at a hair salon that was very busy and sometimes when a haircut went over the allotted time, people who were waiting got extremely irritated. I often had to smile and put up with their rude antics. However, i felt that my smile did ease tensions at times, and made the customer feel a little better.
ReplyDeleteI know that if someone is having a bad day, it can be turned around when a grocery clerk says "thank you, have a good evening" or a cashier at starbucks says "hello, how can i help you" with a smile. I would hate to go to a coffee shop where the clerk was grumpy or showed that they were having a bad day.
In retail it is crucial that workers stay upbeat and positive in order to create a welcoming environment for shoppers. I appreciate the effort, and I'm sure others do as well.