The Emotion Labor Tax

For many practitioners, especially those in the helping professions, there is a particular weight required by their job that is often overlooked. Originally coined by the Sociologist Arlie Hochschild (1983), emotion labor is a term used to describe the process of having to mask one’s authentic emotions or generate inauthentic emotional expression.

Teachers, social workers, firefighters, healthcare providers, flight attendants, counselors, and ministers (among others) are examples of professions that require a high emotion labor load. When a person’s job requires them to consistently adjust their nonverbal expressions to be in contrast with their authentic feelings, it can be exhausting. Our bodies prefer to be in tune with our cognition and forcing them to be out of alignment, though sometimes necessary for the health of our relationships and our work, is taxing.

Navigating this tension and maintaining healthy practices in this area requires an assessment of the dissonance that these situations present and the toll that the practice takes on us. We can then work toward healthy coping strategies. The unfortunate reality is that many people engaged in roles that require significant emotion labor loads are the quickest to burn out; however, increasing our communication education and skill development to mitigate the emotion labor tax can be a key piece in improving our job satisfaction and ultimately, our well-being.