The findings should give employers pause about just how much they can fairly expect in terms of “emotional labor” — the requirement to display certain emotions or feelings toward customers, clients and others at work.

“[Employees] could smile because they genuinely like their customers or they are simply happy, and in that case they are not engaging in what we call ‘emotional labor’ because they are not faking,” explained lead researcher David Wagner, Ph.D. of Singapore Management University, in an email to the Huffington Post. “When they put on that happy face but don’t really feel it — that’s when we start to have problems.”

Researchers observed 78 bus drivers who worked for one transit company in the northwestern United States. Over two weeks, the study participants answered surveys before work, after their shifts and just before they went to bed at night. They were asked about hours of sleep, their moods during and after work, and whether or not they had put on a “performance” or a “mask” that day.

Wagner found that when a bus driver wore a fake smile, he or she was more likely to suffer insomnia that night than someone who wasn’t faking it. Emotional acting was also linked to reports of feeling anxious or distressed, and also increased the likelihood of feeling emotionally exhausted at the end of the day. These people even reported more family conflict at home. Continua a leggere “Sicuri che sorridere ai Clienti faccia bene ai Dipendenti ?” →