What is emotional labor?
Emotional labor is the work of managing your feelings so that you show the facial expressions, tone and emotions your job requires, regardless of what you actually feel. Sociologist Arlie Russell Hochschild developed the concept in her 1983 book The Managed Heart. She showed that a flight attendant’s smile is not simply personality but part of the job, trained and managed by the employer.
- Meaning
- Managing emotions to display what the job requires
- Introduced by
- Hochschild (1983), The Managed Heart
- Typical jobs
- Flight attendants, call-center agents, retail and hospitality staff, nurses, care and counseling workers
- Key ideas
- Feeling rules, surface acting, deep acting
Surface acting and deep acting
Hochschild distinguished two ways of managing emotion.
| Aspect | Surface acting | Deep acting |
|---|---|---|
| How | Changing only the outward expression while the inner feeling stays the same | Trying to change the feeling itself by reinterpreting the situation |
| Example | Smiling while angry | Thinking "this customer may have had a terrible day" |
| Cost | Large gap between felt and displayed emotion | Effortful, but a smaller gap |
The organization’s expectations about which emotions to show, and when, are called feeling rules.
What the research shows
Why does emotional labor wear people out? Grandey (2000) reframed emotional labor in terms of emotion regulation. Surface acting modifies the response after an emotion has already arisen, while deep acting changes how the situation is appraised before the emotion forms. Later studies repeatedly found that surface acting, in particular, is more closely linked to emotional exhaustion.
That is why emotional labor is better understood alongside burnout and work stress than as a question of personal patience. Emotional intelligence, the ability to notice and regulate emotions, is also related.
Law and policy examples
- South Korea: Article 41 of the Occupational Safety and Health Act (in force since October 18, 2018) requires employers to take measures to prevent health harm to workers caused by customers’ verbal abuse or violence. This includes temporarily stopping or changing the work when harm occurs or is likely, and employers may not treat workers unfavorably for requesting such measures.
- Japan: Under the amended Comprehensive Labor Policy Promotion Act, employers have been required since October 1, 2026 to take employment-management measures against harassment by customers (often called "kasuhara").
Points to consider
- Organizational responsibility: check whether service scripts include a right to end abusive calls and clear protection procedures.
- Recovery time: short breaks after difficult interactions matter.
- Peer support: support from coworkers and supervisors helps reduce exhaustion.
Frequently asked questions
- What is emotional labor?
- It is the work of managing your own feelings to display the expressions and emotions a job requires. Hochschild introduced the concept in 1983.
- What is the difference between surface acting and deep acting?
- Surface acting changes only the outward display, while deep acting tries to change the underlying feeling by reinterpreting the situation.
- Which kind of emotional labor is more harmful?
- Research has repeatedly linked surface acting more closely with emotional exhaustion than deep acting.
References
- Hochschild, A. R. (1983). The managed heart: Commercialization of human feeling. University of California Press.
- Grandey, A. A. (2000). Emotional regulation in the workplace: A new way to conceptualize emotional labor. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, 5(1), 95–110. https://doi.org/10.1037/1076-8998.5.1.95
- 산업안전보건법 제41조(고객의 폭언등으로 인한 건강장해 예방조치 등). 국가법령정보센터. https://www.law.go.kr/법령/산업안전보건법