Arlie Hochschild, the sociologist who coined the term emotional labor, defines the term as work, for which you’re paid, which involves trying to feel the right feeling for the job through evoking and suppressing feelings. Depending on who you are or what your job is, the emotional labor of a job can be even more draining than the work itself. For example, jobs in customer service where you have to be attentive and polite to lots of customers within a day even when you are not treated so well, and jobs like nursing or caretaking where you have to take care of many people and deal with sickness or death on a daily basis while keeping your composure. This strain can be added to when also dealing with things such as anxiety or depression, which can make it harder to manage your own emotions.
During the pandemic, I worked in a grocery store. Around that time, I experienced a lot of anxiety around interacting with customers and coming into work. It was very draining having to talk to so many people when it was something that gave me so much anxiety. I had to overlook my feelings and think about making sure I was giving good service and was ready to help a customer at all times. Whenever a customer would be rude or get angry, it would be difficult to continue to serve them and be nice about the situation. It would affect me for a while after an incident like this, but I would have to continue on to the next customer like nothing happened. There was also lots of pressure to make sure I was scanning and bagging groceries at a fast pace. Most of this pressure came from the management of the store, so I would get stressed about making sure I was working to their standards. I would also get anxiety related to seeing someone I knew while I was at work. Whether it be an old teacher or someone that used to go to my high school, I would dread having to wait to see if they remembered me and then having an awkward conversation before I had to move on with my job.
This past summer, I worked for a campaign for someone running for delegate in my district. I also experienced a lot of anxiety with this job because I would make a lot of calls to potential voters for the campaign talking about the candidate. I don’t like talking to people over the phone even more than talking to people in person, and on top of that a lot of people get really annoyed with these types of calls. It was extremely draining making call after call wondering if someone would actually pick up the phone, and not knowing if I would have a nice conversation or if I would get yelled at or harassed for calling their number. There was pressure to make a certain number of calls and to be nice and informative to people on the other end of the phone. This required me to ignore my anxiety and get the work done. This is a great example of a job being much more emotional laboring than physically laboring because all I was doing was sitting down making phone calls, but it was extremely straining to make these calls.
Unruly Bodies 
Emotional labor can definitely take a toll on you, especially if you already have anxiety. This is the reason why I didn’t want to work in retail because of having to deal with all the customers which you are forced to be nice to even though they are rude.
As an anxious person myself, I totally get what you mean when it comes to having to work in customer service and constantly go through emotional labor. You’re forced to put a front towards customers because that is what is expected of us, which causes us to constantly suppress our emotions, which is exhausting! I usually like to get to my workplace a few minutes early, just so I can have time to prepare myself mentally and emotionally for this long shift. Talking with customers is quite stressful because you never know what kind of interaction you’ll have with them. Make sure to always do things that can reduce your anxiety outside of work, whether that is journaling, listening to music, going for a walk or run, or even taking a nap. Always prioritize yourself because your mind and body are precious!
Hello, there is a solid case to what has been said here.
There is a saying that goes , do what you got to do to make the money as far as you making the dough. However, at what cost? We are in a society where employers of labor do not care about their employees or how their job roles affect them either negative or positive. its all about creating zombie and robotic employees so they can keep making money while indirectly inflicting their employees with emotional labour. Employees already have pressure from customers or clients, which it’s expected of them to deal with and manage politely, adding now the pressure and tension from management to be perfect. This makes employees to walk on eggshells and make them have anxiety. This will definitely leave anyone very drained and exhausted mentally. However, you can find a way to balance out and declutter the stress. even if this can’t be avoided. Everyone has a way to destress and just exert out all the negative energy that is unique to them. Personally, I get home and go for a walk while listening to music and when I get back I take a warm soak in the tub. Some people talk to their partner, go for a walk , go to the gym.
Phone anxiety is the worst! I think its because people are bold when they arent talking to you face to face and the possibility of a costumer being rude is significantly higher over the phone. At my old job it was the managers job to answer the phone, but they would get so many calls that they just unplugged the phone. This was great for the manager, but for us working the front we would constantly get costumers complaining about us not answering the phone. Lose lose situation all around.