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Call-center operators experience
high levels of emotional burnout and
distress, induced by their emotional
labor, according to research by Dutch
sociologist Danielle van Jaarsveld.unintended consequence of
capitalism because it makes
women more emotionally prone to
burnout, and psychologically and
socially susceptible to feelings of
self-estrangement and alienation.
Insatiable capitalism
Hochschild’s notion of emotional
work and her analysis of the
emotional labor performed by
airline flight attendants marks
a key moment in the history of
sociological thinking. For Marx,
capitalism leads to physical and
mental degradation for the worker
as the nature of work becomes
increasingly repetitive, menial, and
specialized. Social thinker Harry
Braverman argued that automation
of the workplace leads to the steady
deconstruction of a once highly
skilled workforce. Remaining with
the Marxist tradition, Hochschild
demonstrates that even the most
personal aspects of individual
selfhood—our emotions, feelings,
and affective life—are turned into
commodities and exploited by
the capitalist market in order to
make profit. Her ideas have been
developed by many other scholars
involved with the sociology of work
and emotions, and applied to a
number of occupations, ranging
from nurses and caregivers to
waitresses, telemarketers, and
call-center operators.
Hochschild gives particular
credit to a cross-cultural study of
emotion management, between
Japan and the US, by Aviad Raz in
his 2002 book Emotions at Work.
She relates his story about “smile
training” in which the Japanese
managers at Tokyo Dome
Corporation were not happy with
the weak, “spiritless, externally-
imposed smiles” that they thought
managers in the US were prepared
to settle for. Instead, the Japanese
felt it necessary to appeal to the
underlying chi (“spirit”) of
the workers. This they enticed
from their employees through the
culturally powerful force of shame.
Cameras were placed at the cash
registers of unfriendly sales clerks,
whose videotaped behavior was
shown later to their fellow workers.
The smile may now be a global
fad but Raz confirms Hochschild’s
insight that capitalism exploits
emotional aspects of culture. ■WORK AND CONSUMERISM
Arlie Russell
HochschildArlie Russell Hochschild
was born in 1940 and is a
US feminist and sociologist
of work and emotion. Her
parents were both US
diplomats. Hochschild claims
that growing up in a social
milieu defined by the need for
people to control and manage
their emotions in very subtle
and convincing ways instilled
within her a fascination with
the emotional dimensions of
modern social life.
Hochschild obtained her
MA and PhD at the University
of California, Berkeley. During
this time she became a
feminist and developed an
ongoing interest in the dual
roles women play as workers
and primary caregivers in
capitalist society.
The overtly political pitch
of Hochschild’s work has
strongly influenced feminist
thinking in the US and
Western Europe. It has also
led to an ongoing dialogue
with captains of industry
and high-level politicians.
Hochschild’s work has
informed social policy at a
number of levels, including the
US state of California’s Child
Development Policy Board
as well as former US vice
president Al Gore’s working
families’ policy directives.Key works1983 The Managed Heart:
Commercialization of Human
Feeling
2003 The Commercialization
of Intimate Life: Notes from
Home and Work
2012 The Outsourced Self:
Intimate Life in Market Times...when a worker abandons her
work smile, what kind of tie
remains between her smile
and her self?
Arlie Russell
Hochschild