The Wages of Emotion Work

As explained in the box by Ferris and Stein, emotion work is the process of managing, evoking, or suppressing feelings so as to create a public display of emotion. The box explains that when a person manages or suppresses his emotions, he is able to relate well with the public. During daily interaction, one expects to meet with people with various personalities. After suppressing or evoking the felt emotions, an individual is able to build strong relationships with the society members (120). This is the wage of controlling one’s emotions. Instead of getting involved in frequent conflicts and fights with other people, a person should control his emotions so as to relate effectively. This is supported by Grandey(95) as she explains how an employee benefits the organization by managing her emotions in order interact with clients or customers in an effective way. This is known as emotional labor in which one enhances, fakes, or suppresses his emotions in order to modify the emotional expression.

The box is very important in the textbook since it is used in explaining how relationships can be built. Sociology is all about interacting and relating with other people in the society. Suppressing or managing emotions would therefore be a part of the things a person should do so as to relate well with others. The box mentions and explained both primary and secondary sources. There are also examples explaining how managing emotions pays. The content in the box is clearly written and this makes me more interested with it. However, it might be confusing at the start since one might not understand why suppressing emotions would be beneficial.

Works Cited

Grandey, Alicia A. Emotion Regulation in the Workplace: A New Way to Conceptualize Emotional Labor. Journal of Occupational Psychology, 5.1(2003), pp. 95-110.

Ferris, Kerry and Jill Stein. The Real World (Fourth Edition). London: W. W. Norton, Incorporated, 2014. Print.