We've all been told to 'have a great day' from a smiling shop assistant after purchasing our wares. Many might also recall that cheerful waitress, the one who seems only too happy to clear away our plates, refill our glasses and read out the specials in that upbeat tone of voice.
But have we ever wondered what lies beneath the smiles, the 'enthusiasm', the perpetual happiness? Milda Perminiene from the University of East London did. And she decided to examine what that might be.
Looking at the effects of 'emotional labour' she addressed two varieties (as coined by Arlie Hochschild): 'surface acting' (i.e. changing your facial/body expressions without addressing what you feel inside) and 'deep acting' (trying to change your mind frame by thinking of something happy so you actually begin to feel it).
Whilst both can have benefits when practised in normal life, doing either all day, every day at work, she discovered, had consequences...
Alongside her colleague, Asta Medisauskaite, the pair looked at existing research papers which linked aggression and 'emotional labour' in the workplace. What they found was that when people were required to radiate one thing, such as happiness – when they didn't feel happy – it sometimes lead to aggressive outbursts.
Writing for The Conversation, Milda explained, 'I am aware that workplace aggression may be triggered by stress... And given that emotional labour creates stress and strain, it would make sense that it could also trigger aggression.'
She later said, 'Our review, not yet published but presented at the recent congress of the European Association of Work and Organisational Psychology, demonstrates that in most cases surface acting was linked to aggressive behaviour towards customers and colleagues at work.'
'Deep acting,' she added, 'was linked to aggression toward co-workers in one study.'
This does not sound healthy at all.
Calling all staff who undergo 'emotional labour', if you'd rather provide service without a smile, that's totally fine by us.
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