[acb-hsp] FW: [employment] Faking Enthusiasm

[Baracco, Andrew W]

I recall when I was growing up, there was a nurses strike at a major
hospital in my community. The hospital administration took every
opportunity to assault the character of the strikers, saying that they
put their own petty concerns above that of patient care, and they didn't
deserve to work in that field.  They also obtained a court injunction
and forced the nurses back to work without addressing their issues.

Andy


-----Original Message-----
From: acb-hsp-bounces at acb.org [mailto:acb-hsp-bounces at acb.org] On Behalf
Of Claude Everett
Sent: Wednesday, February 06, 2013 8:50 AM
To: 'Discussion list for ACB human service professionals'
Subject: Re: [acb-hsp] FW: [employment] Faking Enthusiasm

What a shame that we devalue positions such as child care workers or
health workers for seniors. 


Claude Everett
"First of all:  what is work? 
Work is of two kinds:
  first, altering the position of matter at or near the earth's surface
relatively to other such matter;  second, telling other people to do so.
  The first kind is unpleasant and ill paid; the second is pleasant and
highly paid."
>From The collection of essays "In Praise of Idleness" by Bertrand
Russell 
 
-----Original Message-----
From: acb-hsp-bounces at acb.org [mailto:acb-hsp-bounces at acb.org] On Behalf
Of Baracco, Andrew W
Sent: Wednesday, February 06, 2013 8:20 AM
To: Discussion list for ACB human service professionals
Subject: [acb-hsp] FW: [employment] Faking Enthusiasm



-----Original Message-----
From: Andy Baracco [mailto:wq6r at socal.rr.com]
Sent: Tuesday, February 05, 2013 6:34 PM
To: Baracco, Andrew W
Subject: Fw: [employment] Faking Enthusiasm


Something I can identify with.
-----Original Message-----
From: peter altschul
Sent: Tuesday, February 05, 2013 12:49 PM
To: Acbemp
Subject: [employment] Faking Enthusiasm 

Why Faking Enthusiasm Is The Latest Job Requirement
  By Anya Kamenetz February 5, 2013
  Increasingly, companies want loving the job to be part of the job
(though they're less eager to pay for it).  But when our required
professional persona is at odds with our selves, we all suffer.  Is
there a solution?
  Sooner or later, most jobs require us to exhibit some emotion that we
don't necessarily feel.  Flight attendants and waiters are supposed to
smile when they hand you a drink; bill collectors are supposed to scare
you into coming across with the cash.  
Nurses and preschool teachers are supposed to be comforting, even
loving.  When your job requires playing a part, though, it's hard to
figure out where you begin and your job ends.  The experience can be
alienating, even dehumanizing.
  Award-winning UC Berkeley sociologist Arlie Russell Hochschild, in her
book stThe Managed Heart coined the term "emotional labor" 
to describe the curious situation where "seeming to love the job becomes
part of the job."
  This concept has been in the air lately.  Josh Eidelson wrote in stThe
Nationst about D.C.-area Starbucks baristas exhorted to support a
corporate pro-austerity campaign by physically writing a slogan on cups.
"CEO's hawking 'shared sacrifice' are a dime a dozen," Eidelson noted.
"A working-class seal of approval is much more valuable, even if--like
so much in the American workplace--it's coerced."
  Timothy Noah wrote in stThe New Republicst about how Pret A Manger
requires its employees to master "Pret behaviors," such as "has
presence," "creates a sense of fun," and "is happy to be themself."
Yes--in order to sell you a bacon sandwich, employees must be fully
self-actualized.  And the amount that they touch fellow-employees is
considered to be a positive indicator of sales, not a red flag for
sexual-harassment lawsuits.
  "If you have to love the job to do it well, the logic goes, then we
don't want people to be in it for the money."
  Usually we only think of emotional labor as belonging to the low-wage
service economy.  In fact, economist Nancy Folbre argued in her great
book stThe Invisible Heartst that the reason that jobs like preschool
teacher and social worker are so low-paid and devalued is precisely
because they require so much emotional labor.  If you have to love the
job to do it well, the logic goes, then we don't want people to be in it
for the money.
  But as Hochschild wrote, "most of us have jobs that require some
handling of other peoples' feelings and our own, and in that sense we
are all partly flight attendants." Emotional labor exists even in the
startup world, which is supposed to prize authenticity and pure
technical skill.  Lauren Bacon, a web developer, technology
entrepreneur, and author, wrote in the Huffington Post last week about
technology and "empathy work"--the unpaid, not-part-of-the-job
description stuff that
(usually) women do in the startup world, by, for example, bringing the
team together, projecting a positive image in their spare time on social
media, or reminding everyone to eat lunch.
  Bacon sees women in tech companies often being marginalized to
""people" roles like HR, communications, project management, admin, and
user experience.  "One could almost--if one were feeling cheeky--rename
these roles employee empathy, customer empathy, team empathy, user
empathy, and boss empathy: all of them require deep skills in emotional
intelligence, verbal and written communications, and putting oneself in
the shoes of others," she says.  All this work is crucial to a company's
success, but valued at a lower level than the hard-core coding.
  Is there any way to make peace with the emotional heavy lifting that
our jobs may require? Bacon suggests that employers and job candidates
do a better job of talking about and adequately valuing people skills
and not offloading all the emotional labor to a few people.  For
individuals, choosing a job that's a good fit for your natural
temperament is important.  But so is spending enough time away from work
to find out how you really feel.
  Copyright B) 2013 Mansueto Ventures LLC.  All rights reserved.
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