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by rocqua 651 days ago
The effort someone chooses to put in to manage and help the emotions of others.

It ranges from listening to someone talk about their day to driving over at night to a friend who's upset, to organizing an entire intervention.

It is often considered to fall more heavily on women. Notably, as work that often doesn't fully get redistributed when women enter the workforce, much like housekeeping often doesn't.

2 comments

Some emotions are tiring - anger, frustration, depression, anguish, to name a few.

I can't think of any that involve supporting a colleague at work. I could certainly get tired of shenanigans at work, but that would be from frustration et al, but support?

Like the other comment that's responded, I just don't see the link between the description for the term and the situations in either the blog or a workplace.

I've certainly not noticed a difference in the level of emotional support given in the workplace by women either. Whose emotions are they managing? Men's?

> It is often considered to fall more heavily on women.

Citation needed.

Here you go: https://www.simplypsychology.org/emotional-labor.html

> Hochschild (1983) suggested that jobs requiring more emotional labor are performed primarily by women. These jobs typically involve creating feelings of well-being or affirmation in others – responsibilities usually assigned to women.

Hochschild, A. (1983). 1983 The managed heart. Berkeley: University of California Press.

I've read the outline of Hochschild's work, and it applies to jobs like waitresses, who have to maintain a positive image in order to do their job, not people in meetings in an office talking about a project. Hochschild herself has mentioned the scope-creep of the concept, critically.