Emotional labor: definition and example
Emotional labor is the work of managing your feelings and how you show them because a job requires it, such as staying upbeat with an angry customer or calm with a frightened patient. Researchers now study it as a form of emotion regulation at work.
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How researchers frame it
Alicia Grandey reviewed earlier definitions and proposed defining emotional labor as managing feelings and expressions to meet a job's demands, framed through emotion regulation theory (Grandey, 2000). In that framing, workers might change only what they show (often called surface acting) or try to change what they actually feel (deep acting).
An example
A hotel front desk clerk is told by a guest, "This is the worst hotel I have ever stayed in." She smiles and says, "I am sorry your night went badly. Let me see what rooms I have." Surface acting is the smile over gritted teeth. Deep acting might be reminding herself the guest flew in at 2 a.m. after a canceled flight, which softens the irritation itself.
Questions for teams and managers
Which roles carry the most emotional demands, and do they get matching breaks and support? Is there a clear way to end an interaction with a customer who crosses a line? Are workers expected to smile through every situation? These are design choices, not just personal ones.
Why it matters
Managing expression all day takes effort. Holding back a feeling changes what others see more than what you feel, and a review found it carries costs such as impaired memory and higher physiological arousal (Gross, 2002). Emotional labor is not a personal weakness to fix with more smiling; workplaces can reduce its load with support, breaks, and clear policies for hostile or rude customers.
Related: display rules and expressive suppression.
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Research notes
- Alicia A. Grandey (2000). Emotional regulation in the workplace: A new way to conceptualize emotional labor. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, 5(1), 95-110. A review that defines emotional labor as managing feelings and expressions to meet a job's demands, and frames it with emotion regulation theory. doi.org/10.1037/1076-8998.5.1.95
- James J. Gross (2002). Emotion regulation: affective, cognitive, and social consequences. Psychophysiology. Reviews evidence that reappraisal lowers emotion experience and expression with no memory cost, while suppression lowers outward expression but not felt emotion, impairs memory, and increases physiological responding in suppressors and their social partners. Limits: review paper. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/12212647/
Related
- No. 01EQ glossaryThe words behind emotional intelligence, defined.
- No. 02Display rulesDisplay rules are the shared, often unspoken norms about which emotions people should show, hide, exaggerate, or soften in a given setting and with a given audience.
- No. 03Expressive suppressionExpressive suppression is holding back the outward signs of an emotion, such as keeping a straight face while furious.
- No. 04Cognitive reappraisalCognitive reappraisal is changing how you interpret a situation so that its emotional impact changes, for example reading a terse email as rushed rather than hostile.
- No. 05Emotional Intelligence at WorkEmotional intelligence is modestly related to job performance, most clearly in jobs where handling emotions is part of the work, such as service and care roles. These guides cover emotional labor, leadership, feedback and communication under pressure, using the research on each and noting where it is weaker than popular claims. EQTiger scores are for personal reflection and should never be used for hiring or promotion.
- No. 06Emotional Intelligence Test: Free EQ AssessmentExplore your emotional choices with a free 36-item assessment for adults. Get a profile summary and strongest area, then choose whether to unlock the full report.
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