Bringing Focus to the Unseen: Legitimizing the Emotional Labor and Burnout of Service Workers with Recommendations for Human Resources Professionals

Abstract

Emotional Labor is a critical occupational requirement for employees performing direct (person-to-person) service work. Despite the importance and prevalence of emotional labor as an occupational requirement in service industries, emotional labor is often not recognized from a human resources perspective separate and distinct of other job duties. This conceptual article explores emotional labor as an occupational requirement and analyzes the relationships between emotional labor and burnout. Human Resources recommendations are provided for human resources practitioners and organizational management.