Emotional labor
The writer, Earlier Household, chose to give two different labor examples to explain the concept of motional labor. First example is a citation from the book named Ads Capital entitled ‘The Working Day’ which Karl Marx wrote. In that example, a mother takes her seven years old son to work, which is in a wallpaper factory. She makes her son to work sixteen hours a day. On top of it, she feeds his son while he still works on account of, he should not leave the work or stop it. This child is an example of ‘instrument of labor.
Secondly, Household gives an example of a twenty years old flight attendant trainee who works at Delta Airlines Stewardess Training Center. Writer says that, it is an amazing employment opportunity for women due to the fact that, it has a respectable wage considering that time, company provides health and accident insurance and the working hours are suitable. Young trainee sits next to Household, takes notes such as ‘Important to smile. Do not forget to smile. ‘ While the instructor gives the training.
Instructor teach and command girls to smile, really smile because according to him, smiling is the biggest asset of them. The smile is very important because it is more than just a smile, it is also the reflection of the company’s outlook. Smile gives confidence to passenger that he plane will not crush, everything will be on time and also it is the way of welcoming and inviting back the passengers. According to Household, constantly smiling is not always easy to achieve. It affects employees in a bad way. Also, Household mentions a company’s, AS, commercial jingle.
It says in the jingle that; ‘Our smiles are not just painted on. ‘ Household emphasized that commercial by saying, company tells people that their flight attendants’ smile is more humanly than the other companies. Flight attendant not only smile because they get pay to do so. It is not phony. Additionally, in the each lane’s nose, there is a smile-like paint which helps the flight attendant and the plane to advertise each other but, of course this advertisement is not enough. Radio advertisements gives promises to customers that, their flight will give them a travel experience of real happiness and calm. Seen in one way, this is no more than delivering service. Seen in another, it strangers workers from their own smiles and convinces customers that on-the-job behavior is calculated. ‘ says Household. She says, all those advertisements, trainings and dollar bills can go between the customer and flight attendant, it sakes an extra effort to make customer believe. After explaining both examples separately, Household then compares them. According to her, the circumstances of the child worker and flight attendant could not be more different.
The child worker was a victim, even a symbol, of the brutalizing conditions of his time. Writer says: ‘We might imagine that he had an emotional half-life, conscious of little more than fatigue, hunger and boredom. ‘ On the other hand, flight attendant’s case is much different and enjoyable than the worker kid. She enjoys the upper-class freedom to travel ND she participates in the glamour she creates for the customers. ‘She is the envy of clerks in duller, less well paid jobs. ‘ says Household. Subsequently, Household talks about a common denominator of these two kinds of work.
She asks that; ‘How can they know that their job was done? ‘ In the case of child worker, his job finishes when the wallpaper is produced. In the case of the flight attendant, her job finishes when the customer is content. The work, which the boy does in the wallpaper factory, is called for a co-ordination of mind and arm, mind and finger, and mind and shoulder which it can be said hat it is simply physical labor. On the other hand, flight attendant also does physical labor when she pushes the meal carts, and she does mental work about landings and evacuations.
Furthermore, she does something besides that, something that Household defines as emotional labor. This means that, flight attendant evokes or suppresses certain emotions so to conform the social norms, to do her job and make customers satisfied. This kind of labor requires of the co-ordination of mind and feeling, according to Household. Later that, Household mentions the similar bad effects of physical ND emotional labor in the article. According to her, both of them alienates employees from not only their jobs but also their aspect of self.
The child worker works like he is some sort of machine that produces wallpaper. In a sense, he has no control over its speed and motions, employer has it. In the case of flight attendant, she has no control over her feelings. There is only one feeling for her which is happiness that requires smiling. The company not only claims her physical motions but also her emotional actions. Writer says, ‘for the flight attendant, the smiles are a part of her work, a part that requires ere to co-ordinate self and feeling so that the work seems to be effortless. Consequently, Household points out that women put emotional labor in the market more than men. Jobs call for emotional labor for women more frequently. MY OPINIONS ON THE ARTICLE and EMOTIONAL LABOR Emotional labor is a requirement for almost every job. Hotel workers, airline flight attendants, tour operators, coaches, counselors, waiters and such. That list goes on because service excellence is now a key driver of success in most jobs, so elements of emotional labor are present in almost every work places. It is not easy to control emotions.
Some people have more difficulty with this type of work than others, and for many people emotional labor can lead to increased stress and burnout. Think about that, you are a waitress and have to constantly smile and be nice and respectful no matter what is going on in your life besides work. Even if you face to insults of a customer, you cannot stop pretending to be nice, remain pleasant at all times and you have to assume a humble attitude towards the customer. A large part of that challenge comes from the need to hide your real emotions, and continue to mile and nod your head, even when receiving negative or critical feedback.
It is more difficult than it sounds. Of course, I cannot compare it with the child workers situation. Most people would say smiling and pretending is nothing compared to working at a factory sixteen hours a day. Yes, it is true in a way. Muscle work exhaust the body in a physical way. On the other hand, emotional labor, exhaust the mind not the body. In my opinion, people who show emotions that they do not feel or hide the real emotions tend to have more emotional distress than other people.
Therefore, we cannot really say hat jobs, which requires emotional labor, are so much easier to do than the jobs, which requires muscle. Another thing that attracted my attention and I would like to say few words about is the part that the trainers speech to the trainees, which were; ‘Smile girls because it is the biggest asset of yours. ‘ What kind of insult is that!? Women are not just some physical objects. The biggest asset should be their brains instead of their smile, their appearance. Sure, in a job like flight attendance, it is important but saying that it is the biggest asset is fairly wrong.
