Sweet smiles, hard labour

Two ways of measuring the demands of a job have defined industrial relations since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution – time and effort – but a third has emerged in the past few decades: emotional labour. It’s not just your physical stamina and analytical capabilities that are required to do a good job, but your personality and emotional skills as well. From a customer services representative in a call centre to a teacher or manager, the emotional demands of the job have immeasurably increased.

Interesting article in The Guardian.