This study aimed to investigate the effect of facing complaining customer and suppressed emotion at worksite on sleep disturbance among working population. We enrolled 13,066 paid workers (male = 6,839, female = 6,227, age < 65 years) in the 3rd Korean Working Condition Survey (2011). The odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) for sleep disturbance occurrence were calculated using multiple logistic regression models. Among workers in working environments where they always engage complaining customers had a significantly higher risk for sleep disturbance than rarely group (The OR [95% CI]; 5. 46 [3.43-8.68] in male, 5.59 [3.30-9.46] in female workers). The OR (95% CI) for sleep disturbance was 1.78 (1.16-2.73) and 1.63 (1.02-2.63), for the male and female groups always suppressing their emotions at the workplace compared with those rarely group. Compared to those who both rarely engaged complaining customers and rarely suppressed their emotions at work, the OR (CI) for sleep disturbance was 9. 66 (4.34-20.80) and 10.17 (4.46-22.07), for men and women always exposed to both factors. Sleep disturbance was affected by interactions of both emotional demands (engaging complaining customers and suppressing emotions at the workplace). The level of emotional demand, including engaging complaining customers and suppressing emotions at the workplace is significantly associated with sleep disturbance among Korean working population. org/10.3346/jkms.2016.31.11.1696 • J Korean Med Sci 2016 31: 1696-1702
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INTRODUCTIONIn recent years, there has been increasing interest in emotional labour because of the shift of the economy from the manufacturing to the service sector. The service for customer industry has accounted for increasingly large proportions of total industry across the world; it accounted for 70.2% of world GDP in 2012, 59.3% of GDP in the Republic of Korea, 64% in the East Asia and Pacific area, 73% in Europe and Central Asia, 43% in the Middle East and North Africa, and 63% in Latin America and the Caribbean (The World Bank 2013, data available at http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NV.SRV.TETC.ZS). These industry are frequently required to meet customers face-to-face to achieve their goals, such as selling products or solving customers' complains. Naturally, this work involves a great deal of so-called 'emotional labour' . This term was first defined by Hochschild as 'the management of feeling to create a publicly observable facial and bodily display; emotional labor is sold for a wage and therefore has exchange value' (1). Workers in jobs requiring emotional labour are often asked to submit to the emotional demands of controlling their inner feelings, or their outward expression, and displaying only appropriate emotion with their customers. Regardless of their inner feelings, service workers are expected to have a friendly relationship with customers by expressing positive emotions and hiding negative ones (2). This emotional dissonance could cause emotional stress and induce psychological ...