The Emotional Proletariat in Public Service

Abstract

There is an emotional proletariat in public service. This class of worker is employed in lower ranking, lower paid jobs that are disproportionately performed by women. While this study focuses on the Korean context, findings also raise awareness to the U.S. context. An investigation of two distinctly different missions—national tax officials and police officers—reveals how the combination of gender and rank produces differential outcomes in regard to emotive demands. Women in lower grades suffer more emotional exhaustion and feel less pride in their jobs than women and men in higher ranks. The pattern provides evidence that emotional exhaustion is less about individual failure and more about predictable job characteristics. After describing findings, the conclusion speculates about generalizing to the American context.

Heavy Lifting: Emotional Labor and Election Administration

“…Another poll conducted in March of 2022 found that even with all that is known about threats against LEOs, half of all incidents remain unreported (BSG, 2022). Federal, state, and local officials should be cognizant of the threats against LEOs and election workers and protect them and the work they do, particularly because recurring stressful encounters lead to more and intense emotive work (Choi & Guy, 2021), which could directly impact U.S. democracy and its frontline implementers.…”

“…In fact, the prevalence of women in the top election job diminishes as the size (and stature) of the election jurisdiction increases (Manson et al, 2020). Women LEOs are the "emotional proletariat" in the citizen-state encounter via elections (see MacDonald & Sirianni, 1996;Choi & Guy, 2021). Lu (2019) outlines how organizations can better equip their employees to manage emotional labor.…”

“…The election was marred by election violence, both implicit and explicit, and an increased level of misinformation, disinformation, and malinformation (MDM). This paper explores how LEOs performed emotional labor during and after the 2020 election cycle and discusses its impact "in providing the human touch in the citizen-state encounter" (Choi & Guy, 2021;p. 184).…”

“…The election was marred by election violence, both implicit and explicit, and an increased level of misinformation, disinformation, and malinformation (MDM). This paper explores how LEOs performed emotional labor during and after the 2020 election cycle and discusses its impact “in providing the human touch in the citizen-state encounter” (Choi & Guy, 2021; p. 184). It seeks to understand how added stressors of an ongoing global pandemic, increased turnout, threats and performed violence, and public distrust influence the occupational functioning of LEOs and their interactions with the public.…”

Resistance or Capitulation? How Discrete Emotions Shape Citizens’ Interactions With the Administrative State

“…To the extent emotions have been measured, scholars have tended to simplify their theoretical models and empirical analyses by employing either a valence-based or a piecemeal approach to the phenomenon. The valence perspective implies focusing on the overall positive or negative nature of people's emotions (e.g., Carvalho & Brito 2012; Dai et al 2020; Feeney & Boardman 2011; Moynihan et al 2015; Thomassen et al 2017; Thomsen et al 2020; Vogel & Willems 2020) and the piecemeal approach (Feldman 2003: 480) implies focusing on one single emotion at a time, such as compassion (Awan et al 2020; Ropes and de Boer 2021), pride (Choi & Guy 2021), anger (Herzog & Claunch 1997), or fear (Jung et al 2020 ).…”