In class, we learned about different types of labor and how shapes are body and emotions to helps us navigate the world. Karl Marx makes a good a point about how we are so alienated to in doing labor without realizing we maybe suppressing our emotions just for working and making money. Emotional labor defined by Arlie Hochschild is the management of feelings and expressions to fulfill job requirements of a job. People find a job and work to support themselves financially, even if it means expressing their true emotions. Typically jobs where you interacted with a lot people to fulfill their needs like health care jobs and customer service. Occupations like nursing or caregiving need you to take care of numerous people and cope with sickness or death on a regular basis while maintaining your calm. These jobs also require you to be sensitive and pleasant to many clients throughout a day even when you are not treated nicely. It might be more difficult to control your own emotions when you are simultaneously struggling with other mental health problems. My current job is considered healthcare and I will say my experience with job has caused me to hide more true emotions quite a lot. I have been working at a Senior Living Home as a Dining Server for about over year now. The challenge of my job is that most residents there have onset dementia like Alzheimer’s Disease. Because of this, those residents can have a hard time remembering things, thinking, and making decisions that can interfere with everyday and can cause them to get easily frustrated or irritated. I have dealt with quite of few residents who get frustrated with me and have food thrown at me because them getting irritated about something. Of course, I have to stay composed because of the sake for the residents comfort and the reputation of the business I work because if I were to lash out I feel like it would show a lack empathy or feelings towards the residents needs. On top of this, residents have other issues like hearing and eye sight problems and have physical limitations. We have to always work around and cater to these things and requires a lot of patience to deal with the residents.
Unruly Bodies 
Hi, Amazing response. I enjoyed reading this and I empathize with you. This is a very difficult and sensitive topic to talk about. Workers are expected to regulate their emotions during interactions with customers, co-workers and managers. I can somewhat resonate with this experience because I worked as a caregiver and working with patients who are diagnosed with alzheimer’s is hard for you as the caregiver and the family as well. I remember a couple of time going home and breaking down or transferring aggression because I had a terrible day at work. I would say ways to handle emotional labor is to recognize your efforts to others, take care of yourself, resist bottling up, and if you can get other opportunities it is great to browse these options.
Hello! This is such a huge topic for me personally as someone who deals with Bipolar Disorder, PTSD, and GAD. In the workplace, it’s so draining for me to have to pretend I am 100% okay all of the time. Or, in a situation where a customer is wrong and/or being rude, it’s much harder for me to bite my tongue. Of course with having to always “be happy” and bite my tongue in order to keep a job and make a living, I come home SO drained and most of the time unable to do anything else for the rest of the day. I feel that mental health days are becoming more available in workplaces, but at a slower rate than they should. There’s still a stigma around mental health that I hope continues to fade with time.