Emotions in the workplace

Emotional labor/ emotional work

"As the nature of the U.S. and global economies is increasingly transforming from manufacturing to service, organizational participants are coping with new challenges, and those challenges often involve complex processes of emotion in the workplace. The initial shift in the economy involved a move to customer service (including industries such as retailing, restaurants and the travel industry), leading to scholarly consideration of the way emotional communication is used in the service of customers and in the advancement of organizational goals. This type of work has come to be labeled as emotional labor...the emotions and displays in emotional labor are largely inauthentic and are seen by management as a commodity that can be controlled, trained and set down in employee handbooks." "This relates to the induction or suppression of feeling in order to sustain an outward appearance that produces a sense in others of being cared for in a convivial safe place.". Emotional labor refers to effort to show emotions that may not be genuinely felt but must be displayed in order to "express organizationally desired emotion during inter-personal transaction." "Commercialization of emotional labor and the trends towards the homogenization of industrial and service-sector labor processes have, in turn, been shaped by the adoption of new management practices designed to promote feeling rules and personal patterns of behavior that enhance the institutions or enterprises performance or competitive edge". In order to define the image that they want their organizations to portray, leaders use a "core component of "emotional intelligence" to recognize emotions.". that appear desirable. Organizations have begun using their employee's "emotion as a commodity used for the sake of profit".

Emotional labor inhibits workers from being able to participate in authentic emotional work. Emotional work is described as "emotion that is authentic, not emotion that is manufactured through surface acting…rarely seen as a profit center for management". "The person whose feelings are easily aroused (but not necessarily easily controlled) is going to have far more difficulty in dealing with emotionally stressful situations. In contrast, empathetic concern is hypothesized to have positive effects on responsiveness in international and on outcomes for the worker. A worker with empathetic concern will have feelings for the client but will be able to deal more effectively with the client's problems because there is not a direct sharing of the client's emotions". "Although emotional labor may be helpful to the organizational bottom line, there has been recent work suggesting that managing emotions for pay may be detrimental to the employee". Emotional labor and emotional work both have negative aspects to them including the feelings of stress, frustration or exhaustion that all lead to burnout. "Burnout is related to serious negative consequences such as deterioration in the quality of service, job turnover, absenteeism and low morale…[It] seems to be correlated with various self report indices of personal distress, including physical exhaustion, insomnia, increased use of alcohol and drugs and marital and family problems". Ironically, innovations that increase employee empowerment — such as conversion into worker cooperatives, co-managing schemes, or flattened workplace structures — have been found to increase workers’ levels of emotional labor as they take on more workplace responsibilities.

Negative

Negative emotions at work can be formed by "work overload, lack of rewards, and social relations which appear to be the most stressful work-related factors". "Cynicism is a negative effective reaction to the organization. Cynics feel contempt, distress, shame, and even disgust when they reflect upon their organizations" (Abraham, 1999). Negative emotions are caused by "a range of workplace issues, including aggression, verbal abuse, sexual harassment, computer flaming, blogging, assertiveness training, grapevinxes, and non verbal behavior". "Stress is the problem of each person feeling it. [Negative emotions] can be caused by "poor leadership, lack of guidance, lack of support and backup. It can cause the performance of the employees to decrease causing the performance of the organization to decrease. Employees' lack of confidence in their abilities to deal with work demands… and their lack of confidence in coworkers… can also create prolonged negative stress". Showing stress reveals weakness, therefore, employees suppress their negative emotions at work and home. "People who continually inhibit their emotions have been found to be more prone to disease than those who are emotionally expressive". Negative emotions can be seen as a disease in the workplace. Those who exhibit it negatively affect those around them and can change the entire environment. A co-working might de-motivate those around them, a manager might cause his employees to feel contempt. Recognizing the negative emotions and learning how to handle them can be a tool for personal success as well as the success of your team. Managing your emotions in a way that does not show negativity will cause you to be seen more favorably in the workplace and can help with your personal productivity and development.

Consequences

Psychological and Emotional- "Individuals experiencing job insecurity have an increased risk for anxiety, depression, substance abuse, and somatic complaints". Marital and Family- Spouses and children can feel the crossover effects of burnout brought home from the workplace. Depleted levels of energy which effect home management is another consequence. Organizational- Negative feelings at work effect "employee moral, turnover rate, commitment to the organization".

Not being able to control personal emotions and recognize emotional cues in others can be disastrous in the workplace. It can cause conflict between you and others, or simply cause you to be seen in a negative light and result in missed opportunities.

Over half of executives report anxiety and panic attacks, three quarters experience depression, and more than a third use recreational drugs weekly to cope with work stress.

Not having a strong base to things like drama and gossip can also disrupt a functioning business. Lisa McQuerrey gives a definition for drama: "Drama is usually defined as spreading unverified information, discussing personal matters at work, antagonizing colleagues or blowing minor issues out of proportion to get attention." McQuerry wrote an article giving solutions to stop drama and conflict between coworkers. There are eight important solutions to ending conflict in a workplace according to McQuerrey, first being to set a policy in an employee handbook making drama unacceptable. With this, there needs to be a list of consequences. Second being that the roles of employees need to be clarified. Other examples in her article include: Stopping gossip before it makes its rounds, confronting employees about changes at work yourself instead of having a rumor mill, report drama if there is a regular instigator. McQuerrey goes on with saying that if situations go on, there should be a meeting held where management mediates the people who gossip. It is also important to follow up with your policy and give warnings about the consequences. Employees may be unaware of how their actions impact their coworkers, bringing in a behavioral expert into your business is usually a positive reinforcement when there's nothing else you can do.