When caring is not enough: Emotional labor and youth shelter workers

Abstract

Organizations often dictate how their employees should behave through explicit rules and structures. In addition, sociologists and organizational theorists suggest that organizations invest energy, time, and money into creating a uniform mentality through selective hiring, formal meetings, and informal gatherings. Based on in-depth interviews with seven frontline workers at a Canadian youth shelter, this article explores the concept of emotional labor by workers who struggle with their organization's culture and its demands on them. I suggest that the: negative consequences of the demand for emotional labor can be: mitigated when workers both identify positively with their work and I have a strong sense of solidarity with their coworkers.