Federal managers must recognize and help employees the “emotional labor” that some federal occupations demand, MSPB said in a recent newsletter.
MSPB defined emotional labor as “the effort that an employee must apply to suppress private feelings in order to show appropriate work-related emotions. It is the process of managing one’s own emotions, sensing the emotions of others, and using that knowledge to govern actions on the job.”
Many federal jobs impose high demands in this area because they require interaction with members of the public in difficult or even traumatic circumstances, such as corrections and law enforcement, social workers, medical workers, and disaster response.
It said that management should: recognize the types of jobs that impose such strains and fully disclose them in the hiring process; assign seasoned employees as the first point of contact for members of the public in emotional situations; train employees on how to recognize and respond to other people’s emotions; communicate agency standards for employees’ own emotional expression and techniques for how to manage them; and offer stress management and emotional health services for employees.
