Work at Leisure and Leisure at Work: A Study of the Emotional Labour of Tour Reps

Abstract

This article explores the work of one particular type of leisure worker: the overseas tour rep. Drawing on theoretical debates, it analyses qualitative observation and interview data collected from tour reps working in Mallorca, Spain for a British budget tour operator. We explore the paradoxes of delivering emotional labour in a job where the boundaries between work and leisure are blurred, and which is both explicitly about delivering fun and also about the ‘dirty work’ of managing holidaymakers’ complaints and excesses. We argue that reps actively seek spaces where they are able to buy into a lifestyle that they see as reflecting their authentic selves. This enables them to accept the negative part of their work and they become disciplined workers.

Relational Job Design and the Motivation to Make a Prosocial Difference

“…According to the literature on burnout, emotional labor, and customer service behavior, interactions provide favorable information about beneficiaries when beneficiaries appear amiable, receptive to help, or appreciative (Cohen & Sutton, 1998;Guerrier & Adib, 2003;Lively, 2002;Locke, 1996); even a mere smile from beneficiaries may encourage employees to be cooperative and trusting (Scharlemann, Eckel, Kacelnik, & Wilson, 2001). Interactions provide unfavorable information about beneficiaries when beneficiaries appear disrespectful, difficult to help, aggressive, rude, or hostile (Grandey et al, 2004;Maslach, Schaufeli, & Leiter, 2001;Zapf, 2002).…”

Número complet

“…El crecimiento de estas actividades obliga a las empresas a gestionar las reacciones afectivas y sus manifestaciones (Wharton, 2009). Posteriormente, el concepto ha recibido múltiples matices (Bolton y Boyd, 2003;Guerrier y Adib, 2003;Seymour y Sandiford, 2005;Theodosius, 2006) y, a partir de dicho estudio seminal, se abren varias líneas de investigación, algunas de las cuales entroncan con otras problemáticas de la sociología de las organizaciones o del trabajo (Wharton, 2009).…”

Emotion management as struggle in dirty work: the experiences of exotic dancers

“…Researchers draw attention to the emotion management and emotional labour required in the cognitive processes of negotiating the demands of dirty work (Crawley, 2004;Filstad, 2010;Guerrier and Adib, 2003;Sanders, 2005). Beyond the dirty work literature, Bolton (2000aBolton ( , 2000bBolton ( , 2009) argues for a more nuanced discussion of emotion management to better capture the complexities of individuals' experiences across occupations and sectors.…”

“…As a result, identity construction for dirty workers can be particularly complex and they engage in a number of strategies to construct and negotiate boundaries to manage the stigma they experience (e.g., distancing, dividing up their social world, projecting disgust, infusing the work with positive value, building strong subcultures) (Ashforth et al, 2007;Grandy, 2008;Tracy and Trethewey, 2005). Considerable literature has explored the emotion work inherent in these noted strategies, specifically the emotional labour required by individuals employed in dirty work occupations such as prison guards (Crawley, 2004), tour reps (Guerrier and Adib, 2003), prostitutes (Sanders, 2005) and exotic dancers (Barton, 2002;Fogel and Quinlan, 2011). Pratt and Doucet (2000) contend that emotional labour may result in emotional ambivalence and we extend this line of thinking by fusing the literatures on dirty work, emotion management and exotic dancing to theoretically and empirically advance our understanding of the complexity of everyday experiences of work.…”