Emotional Labor
QUOTE
Joan Tronto once said…
“Caring for others is not just sentiment—it is work.”
(Political scientist)
CONCEPT
Emotional Labor
Emotional labor is the effort of managing feelings, expressions, and interpersonal dynamics as part of one’s role—often at work, but also in daily life.
The term describes how service workers, caregivers, and professionals must suppress or amplify emotions to meet expectations.
A flight attendant smiling through turbulence, a nurse offering calm to a frightened patient, a teacher keeping patience with an unruly class—all are performing emotional labor.
STORY
Be Still Thy … Emotions?
In 1983, sociologist Arlie Russell Hochschild published a book that revealed something airlines had known for decades: flight attendants weren’t just selling safety—they were selling smiles.
In ”The Managed Heart,” Hochschild documented how companies like Delta and United explicitly trained attendants to perform emotions as part of their jobs. Manuals instructed them not just on how to serve food or handle emergencies, but how to appear cheerful, calm, and reassuring at all times.
If turbulence struck, they were to smile while moving through the cabin. If a passenger was rude or aggressive, they were expected to remain unfailingly polite. Their personal feelings—fear, frustration, exhaustion—were to be suppressed in favor of a company-approved demeanor.
One flight attendant described the toll of this work:
“You’re supposed to look at him like he’s the most wonderful thing you ever saw. And I mean, you’re not just serving food—you’re doing it with a smile, with warmth, with interest, like you’re at a cocktail party.”
Hochschild called this phenomenon ”emotional labor”: the regulation of feeling to create a public display that benefits the employer.
The smile wasn’t just an expression—it was a product being sold.
Hochschild’s research made the invisible visible. She showed that industries didn’t just buy workers’ physical and mental skills—they bought their emotions. The truth that Hochschild uncovered was simple but profound: behind every professional smile, there is effort.
And that effort deserves to be recognized as labor.