Tears at Work: Gender, Interaction, and Emotional Labour

Authors

  • Angelo Soares

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.25071/1705-1436.174

Abstract

For a long time, it has been believed that it is possible to leave our emotions at the threshold of the workplace. This excessively simplifies the complexity and heterogeneity of work, leading to an underestimation of the effects of work on health. Our objective is to understand one particular form of the expression of workers’ emotions: crying at work, which may be linked to an excess of emotional labour or to the impossibility of its achievement. Thus, differences between male and female crying, at least at work, may be explained not only by a gendered socialisation of individuals, but also by the sexual division of emotional labour. This imposes an emotional overload on women, since a more intensive management of emotions is demanded of them at work.

 

Nous avons cru pendant longtemps qu'il était possible de laisser nos émotions à la porte des organisations. Cela simplifie excessivement la complexité et l'hétérogénéité du travail et, par conséquent, on finit par sous-estimer les effets du travail sur la santé. Notre objectif est de comprendre une forme particulière de l'expression des émotions des travailleuses et travailleurs : les larmes au travail qui peuvent être associées, soit à une surcharge de travail émotionnel, soit à l’impossibilité de son accomplissement. Ainsi, les différences entre les larmes des femmes et des hommes, au moins au travail, peuvent être expliquées, non seulement par les différences sexuées dans la socialisation des individus, mais aussi par la division sexuelle du travail émotionnel et des émotions qui impose une surcharge émotive plus prononcée aux femmes en demandant une gestion plus intensive de leurs émotions au travail.

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— Updated on 2003-03-01

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How to Cite

Soares, A. (2003). Tears at Work: Gender, Interaction, and Emotional Labour. Just Labour, 2. https://doi.org/10.25071/1705-1436.174

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