Sophie Ardley
Emotional labour is when we adapt our true emotions to emotions that are expected of us in a job, particularly in customer service sectors. For example, not only providing satisfactory service required of the business to the customers, but also showing friendliness and enthusiasm. There are two types of emotional labour, surface acting and deep acting.
Surface acting is when workers do not try to feel the emotions they wish to portray. Instead, they express emotions that do not reflect their true feelings, such as a fake smile. Surface acting can be done through suppressing or amplifying our real emotions.
Deep acting is when people attempt to modify their true feelings to match the required emotions. Deep acting can be done through refocusing attention or re-evaluating our feelings
Surface acting has been found to have consequences on our health and can cause anxiety, tension, or sleep issues.
Some studies have found deep acting to be related to a sense of accomplishment and better job satisfaction, whereas other studies have found it to be related to exhaustion and psychosomatic symptoms. This could suggest that deep acting can take a toll on our well-being overtime
Grandey, A. A., & Sayre, G. M. (2019). Emotional Labor: Regulating Emotions for a Wage. Environment and Urbanization, 28(2), 179–199. https://doi-org.ezproxy.waikato.ac.nz/10.1177/095624780101300215
Lu, Y., Wu, W., Mei, G., Zhao, S., Zhou, H., Li, D., & Pan, D. (2019). Surface acting or deep acting, who need more effortful? A study on emotional labour using functional near-infrared spectroscopy. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 13(151), 1-10.
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