Do You Value Emotional Labor?
Emotional labor is the unpaid and often undervalued work we do to manage feelings, expressions, and behaviors to support the emotional comfort of others. Sound familiar?
It might look like a job that has a “customer is always right” policy, or regularly coming up with meal ideas and a shopping list or scheduling vet appointments and carpools, or calming the child after a bad dream. Perhaps you coordinate the office parties or always buy the presents and birthday cards for others to sign, maybe it’s on you to curb racist inappropriate behavior in others.
Emotional labor disproportionately falls on women, BIPOC communities, and disadvantaged groups not because these groups are so much better at anticipating the emotional and care needs of others, but because others have been socialized that it’s someone else’s job and they undervalue the importance of emotional labor.
And the burden of emotional labor increases stress, burnout, resentment, and feelings of overwhelm and fatigue.
But, we can learn to balance the emotional labor in our relationships so everyone can thrive and that’s the topic on today’s Polly Campbell, Simply Said.
Worth a Read:
What is Emotional Labor and Why Does it Matter, by Hope Reese: https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/what_is_emotional_labor_and_why_does_it_matter
Emotional Labor by Rose Hackman https://www.amazon.com/Emotional-Labor-Invisible-Shaping-Lives/dp/1250777356
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