The Managed Heart

In exploring the concept of “emotional labor,” the book discusses how employees in service-oriented professions involve turning feelings into marketable assets by training employees to manage emotions as part of their job. This commodification has significant implications for workers’ identities, personal lives, and emotional well-being.

The text defines emotional labor as the process by which workers manage their emotions to fulfill the emotional requirements of their jobs. This labor requires training employees to induce or suppress feelings to create a publicly observable display that enhances the customer experience. Such training is not superficial; it involves deep acting through which employees strive to align their internal feelings with the external emotional displays demanded by their roles. For example, flight attendants are trained to smile, exude warmth, and convey reassurance regardless of their actual feelings. Flight attendants at Delta Airlines are taught to view their smiles as their “biggest asset” and to genuinely embody the company’s image of hospitality and safety.

The text further explores the commodification of emotions through systematic training programs designed to instill these emotional displays. The text gives detailed accounts of the training processes, highlighting how companies meticulously shape the emotional responses of their employees.