Labor Intensive
Today, throughout America today we celebrate Labor Day. The first Monday of September every year, this holiday’s purpose is to commemorate the American Labor movement. “Labor Day celebrates the women and men who campaigned tirelessly for workers’ rights in the labor movement of the late 19th century. Their hard-fought wins are the reason for many of the rights we enjoy and take for granted today, such as a 40-hour work week, safe work conditions, paid time off, and sick leave. Those workers saw that there could be no freedom and liberty in this country without economic freedom for the working class. The holiday honors the source of this nation’s strength — American workers, unions, and labor leaders,” explains https://www.thepioneerwoman.com/holidays-celebrations/a36597519/when-is-labor-day/ The Pioneer Woman’s Contributor, Tierney McAfee.
For many, this holiday marks the end of summer and, a break into a new season. It can also be a time to acknowledge the efforts made in our own wellness and healing. I was thinking about this within the context of being a graduate student and artist. I have a love for photography that is just not going away. In particular and to my own surprise, macro photography and nature has expanded my emotional, spiritual and academic awareness. This has not come without work. While going for walks, accompanied by my camera, I have noticed beautiful moments may take several minutes (or longer) to capture. This can (and more often than not I’m realizing) take standing, leaning or crouching in uncomfortable positions for longer periods of time that I would like. While loving it, it is also laborious.
Applying this thought to professional and even emotional labor, while we may not be where we want, have we progressed in any way forward to a healthier version of ourselves? Physical rest is important to our bodily beings but, often, the emotional and mental parts of ourselves gets overlooked. When these aspects of our humanness get pushed aside and are not attended to regularly, if at all, overload and overwhelm will generally follow. “Emotional labor is something many of us do at work and outside of work. While companies may not treat or acknowledge it as a valid part of our workload, it very much is, and doing too much emotional labor can take a mental and physical toll according to https://rightasrain.uwmedicine.org/life/relationships/emotional-labor UW Medicine.
So what does emotional labor mean?
In an article published by Quartz, Contributor Corinne Purtill elucidated the terminology coined by sociologist Arlie Hochschild 35 years ago. “Hochschild intended the term to refer to the work a person does to manage their own emotions in the context of a job. Keeping one’s cool externally when going about a necessary if stressful task? That’s emotional labor. Remembering birthdays, oil change appointments, and the family chore schedule, however, is not. It’s mental labor” https://qz.com/work/1475483/what-is-emotional-labor.
Penn State University’s Dr. Alicia Grandey’s, Department of Psychology’s WELD Lab describes it as the following, “By definition (Hochschild, 1983, The Managed Heart), emotional labor refers to regulating or managing emotional expressions with others as part of one’s professional work role. Emotional labor is parallel to physical labor; both are occupations that tend to require a lot of effort,” https://weld.la.psu.edu/what-is-emotional-labor/. They make the distinction between emotional work and labor with both managing emotional expectations in interactions, though differing within the relational context and purpose.
A study published by AIMS Public Health, The impact of emotional labor on the health in the workplace: a narrative review of literature from 2013–2018, conveys “the management of a person’s feeling, which contributes to creating a facial and bodily display that is publicly observable and can also impact an individual effectiveness on a job,” https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6779598/ adjoining this point about emotional labor. The study continues, “Furthermore, emotional labor can lead to health complications such as high blood pressure, exhaustion, diseases of the heart and emotional trauma.” Clearly, emotional labor is an aspect of health that not only should be considered but, should be factored into our well-being routines and lifestyles. “I definitely think emotional labor is being taken for granted, says a VP from the McKinsey & Company’s annual Women in the Workplace 2021 report https://wiw-report.s3.amazonaws.com/Women_in_the_Workplace_2021.pdf. “We’re so focused on revenue as opposed to the skills required to manage teams remotely in a COVID world. I don’t think those skills and emotional labor are being formally recognized or that there’s any strong awareness around it.”
Work. Labor. Exertion. These words are often linked synonymously with drudgery. Things that are labor intensive don’t necessarily have to be harshly enforced or implemented. “Like its physical counterpart, work that requires emotional effort can be as rewarding as it is challenging. “This kind of labor calls for a coordination of mind and feeling, and it sometimes draws on a source of self that we honor as deep and integral to our individuality,” Hochschild wrote in The Managed Heart.
Though unseen, emotions ignored can and often will become problematic to the detriment of not only the individual but, affects the collective. From Forbes, “While invisible, this work is an important part of problem-solving in the workplace,” https://www.forbes.com/sites/lindsaykohler/2021/09/30/its-time-to-talk-about-the-cost-of-emotional-labor-at-work/?sh=61265fec35a0. The workplace can be the literal brick and mortar establishments, online enterprises, societal organizations and, include the institutions within our own human being-ness. Honoring the output of emotional labor intensive work means acknowledging its existence in the first place. And this also means, incorporating ways to modulate.
While still new to me, the human I have been is shifting into who I’d like to human be. This human becoming can only happen by placing effort on human being and not human over exerting. The healthy commoditization of well-being and the economic contributions that align with these inner awareness services means the emotional, spiritual and physical well-being are needing to be congruently affiliated and, integrated. With this labor day, let’s make sure to take time to attend to all aspects of our labors. Addressing when we need to go off-duty, increasing and decreasing exertion for the sake of our humanity and, those around us.
Aung, N., & Tewogbola, P. (2019). The impact of emotional labor on the health in the workplace: a narrative review of literature from 2013–2018. AIMS public health, 6(3), 268–275. https://doi.org/10.3934/publichealth.2019.3.268
Grandey, A. (n.d.). What is Emotional Labor?. Workplace Emotional Labor and Diversity Lab. https://weld.la.psu.edu/what-is-emotional-labor/
Kohler, L. (2021, September 30). It’s time to talk about the cost of emotional labor at work. Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/lindsaykohler/2021/09/30/its-time-to-talk-about-the-cost-of-emotional-labor-at-work/?sh=61265fec35a0
Labor Day in the United States. Labor Day 2023 in the US. (n.d.). https://www.timeanddate.com/holidays/us/labor-day
McAfee, T. (2023, August 24). When is Labor Day in 2023 and why do we celebrate the holiday?. The Pioneer Woman. https://www.thepioneerwoman.com/holidays-celebrations/a36597519/when-is-labor-day/
McKinsey & Company. (2021). Women in corporate America is at a critical the workplace crossroads. AmazonAWS.com. https://wiw-report.s3.amazonaws.com/Women_in_the_Workplace_2020.pdf
Princing, M. (2022, March 2). What is emotional labor and why is it important?. Right as Rain . https://rightasrain.uwmedicine.org/life/relationships/emotional-labor
Purtill, C. (2018, November 26). The person who coined the term “emotional labor” says we’re getting it all wrong. Quartz. https://qz.com/work/1475483/what-is-emotional-labor