The economy of smiles: affect, labour and the contemporary deserving poor

This paper examines the affective dimensions of new forms of informal entrepreneurial work carried out in spaces of unemployment. Situating the analysis within contemporary scholarship on deservingness and on affect and labour, I shed light on the forms of entrepreneurial labour that rely upon affect-driven economies of exchange underpinned by moral judgements of deservingness, value and worth. In particular, this paper draws on a multi-city (Melbourne, London, San Francisco) study of homeless street press sellers (The Big Issue and Street Sheet) to explore the ways in which contemporary practices of charity and care are carried out through individualized market-place exchanges. Sellers' accounts of their work reveal how smiling and being (or looking) happy is a performative expectation that must be managed in the face of poverty and precarity.

Research on How Emotional Expressions of Emotional Labor Workers and Perception of Customer Feedbacks Affect Turnover Intentions: Emphasis on Moderating Effects of Emotional Intelligence

Previous studies have used various external variables and parameters as well as moderator variables such as emotional intelligence have been to understand emotional labor and its related problems. However, a comprehensive model to study such variables' correlations with each other and their overall effect on emotional labor has not yet been established. This study used a structural equation model to understand the relationship between employees' expression of emotional labor and perception of customer feedbacks. The study also looked at how the perception of customer feedback affects emotional exhaustion in order to understand how emotional exhaustion affects job satisfaction and turnover intentions. Further, in order to fully understand the effects of emotion on emotional labor at the service contact points, this study developed and tested a model of emotional labor with four factors of emotional intelligence as moderating factors. Five hundred and seventy nine emotional labor workers in service industries in the United States were collected and 577 valid survey results have been analyzed. The result shows that there exists moderating effects of emotional intelligence on how employees' Deep Acting and Surface Acting recognize customers' reactions, both positive and negative, that would affect employees' Emotional Exhaustion and Job Satisfaction, and hence, Turnover Intention. The result suggests that employees with better understanding of their own emotions, although they are more likely to recover from emotional exhaustion, experience a greater negative effect when there is a discrepancy between what they feel and how they should act.

Emotional labor, workplace violence, and depressive symptoms in female Bank employees: a questionnaire survey using the K-ELS and K-WVS

Background

In modern society, the scale of the service industry is continuously expanding, and the number of service workers is increasing. Correspondingly, physical and mental problems related to emotional labor are becoming a major social problem. In this study, we investigated the relationship between emotional labor, workplace violence, and depressive symptoms in female bank employees, which is a typical service industry.

Methods

In this study, the Korean Emotional Labor Scale (K-ELS) and Korean Workplace Violence Scale (K-WVS) were distributed to 381 female workers in their 20s at a bank in Seoul, Korea. Data were obtained from 289 subjects (75.9%) and analyzed for 278 respondents, after excluding those with missing responses. We examined the relationship between emotional labor, workplace violence, and depressive symptoms, using multiple logistic regression analysis.

Results

Among 278 subjects, 27 workers (9.7%) had depressive symptoms. “Emotional disharmony and hurt” (OR 2.93, 95% CI = 1.17–7.36) and “Organizational surveillance and monitoring” (OR 3.18, 95% CI = 1.29–7.86) showed a significant association with depressive symptoms. For workplace violence, the “Experience of psychological and sexual violence from supervisors and coworkers” (OR 4.07, 95% CI = 1.58–10.50) showed a significant association. When the number of high-risk emotional labor-related factors was 1 or more, 13.1% showed depressive symptoms. When the number of high-risk workplace violence-related factors was 1 or more, 14.4% had statistically significant depressive symptoms.

Conclusions

A significant result was found for depressive symptoms related to Emotional disharmony, which is a sub-topic of emotional labor, and those at high risk for “Organizational surveillance and monitoring.” For workplace violence, depressive symptoms were high for the group at high risk for the “experience of psychological and sexual violence from supervisors and coworkers.” In this way, management of emotional disharmony, a sub-factor of emotional labor, is necessary, and improvements to traditional corporate culture that monitors emotional labor is necessary. Violence from colleagues and supervisors in the workplace must also be reduced.

IRB Approval No. SCHUH 2017–01-029. Registered 26 January 2017. Retrospectively registered.

Electronic supplementary material

The online version of this article (10.1186/s40557-018-0229-9) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Depression, Anxiety and Symptoms of Stress among Hong Kong Nurses: A Cross-sectional Study

Recent epidemiological data suggests 13.3% of Hong Kong residents suffered from Common Mental Disorders, most frequently mixed anxiety and depressive disorder. This study examines the weighted prevalence and associated risk factors of depression, anxiety and stress among Hong Kong nurses. A total of 850 nurses were invited to participate in this cross-sectional study. Participants completed the Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale 21 and multiple logistic regression was used to determine significant relationships between variables. Chronic past-year illness and poor self-perceived mental health were significant correlates of past-week depression, anxiety and stress. It confirmed further positive correlations between depression and divorce, widowhood and separation, job dissatisfaction, disturbance with colleagues, low physical activity levels and sleep problems. Marital status; general medicine; sleep problems, and a lack of leisure significantly correlated with anxiety. Stress was significantly associated with younger age, clinical inexperience, past-year disturbance with colleagues, low physical activity, no leisure and drinking alcohol. Nurses were more depressed, anxious and stressed than the local general population, with over one-third of our respondents classified as subject to these disorders.

Helping occupational performance through engagement: A service evaluation of a programme for informal carers of people with dementia

Statement of context

The Helping Occupational Performance through Engagement programme is a series of workshops which aim to equip informal caregivers with the skills and knowledge they require to engage a person with dementia in meaningful daily occupations.

Reflection on practice

Following the initial implementation of the programme, a service evaluation was carried out to establish whether these aims were being met. The evaluation took a mixed methods approach, combining questionnaire and focus group data obtained from participants of the programme.

Implications for practice

Results demonstrated that whilst in general the programme is fulfilling its aims, further evaluation is required to establish the long-term impact of the programme.

A study of influences of the workers' compensation and injury management regulations on aviation safety at a workplace

As the aviation industries developed, so too did the recognition that there must be an effective regulatory framework to address issues related to the workers' compensation and rehabilitation. All employees would like to work and return home safely from their workplace. Therefore, the efficient management of workplace injury and disease reduces the cost of aviation operations and improves flight safety. Workers' compensation and injury management laws regulate a majority of rehabilitation and compensation issues, but achieving an injury-free workplace remains a major challenge for the regulators. This paper examines the clauses of the workers' compensation and injury management laws of Western Australia related to workplace safety, compensation, and rehabilitations of the injured workers. It also discusses various provisions of common law under the relevant workers' health injury management legislations.

With(out) pleasure: Desexualization, gender and sexuality at work

This article explores desexualization in massage therapy as a complex interaction between therapists and clients wherein sexual subjectivities are co-constructed, reified and in one case revised to highlight how workers can create a professional sexual identity in the spaces between desexualization and re-eroticization. Findings suggest that organizational mandates for desexualization as well as therapists’ own framing maintains gendered subjectivities that paint men as aggressors and women as victims. It also offers, through the philosophy of one female therapist, an alternative to desexualization that seeks to encourage sexuality based on professionalism, respect and choice. A key implication of this study is that a more holistic and context-dependent view of work and workers is necessary for scholars and practitioners to understand the promise and perils of organizational desexualization.

Job-related stress, emotional labor, and depressive symptoms among Korean nurses

PURPOSE

The purpose was to examine the relationship between job-related stress, emotional labor, and depressive symptoms among South Korean nurses in order to suggest practical methods for their management, prevention, and reduction.

DESIGN

A cross-sectional, descriptive study design was used to conduct the study. A convenience sample of 441 nurses who were employed in five general hospitals in four provinces of Korea was used in the study.

METHODS

A self-reported questionnaire was used to collect data, which included demographic and job characteristics, job-related stress, emotional labor, and depressive symptoms. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, chi-squared testing, and multivariate logistic regression.

FINDINGS

Approximately 38% of South Korean nurses experience depressive symptoms, and young or single nurses in particular have high levels of depressive symptoms. Marital status (odds ratio [OR] = 2.88), surface acting (OR = 2.46), job insecurity (OR = 1.99), and lack of reward (OR = 1.60) are strongly related depressive symptoms that result from job-related stress.

CONCLUSIONS

Findings indicate that programs for nurses need to be created that will help reduce expectations for surface acting and control job-related stress, thus preventing the development of depressive symptoms.

CLINICAL RELEVANCE

This study has implications for human resources management in nursing organizations. If nursing administrators understand that nurses may suffer from depressive symptoms, they can strive to improve stressful work conditions, develop programs that ease job-related stress, and reduce the chances that depressive symptoms will occur.

Patterns of sexual commerce among women at US Syringe Exchange Programs

In the USA, the majority of research on sex work has examined the experiences of women recruited from social locations commonly referred to as the 'sex industry', such as street strolls or escort services. This paper presents data from female syringe exchange participants who had sold sex in the last 30 days. The women interviewed for this study report a much broader array of commercial transactions than found in previous US studies, including selling sex to women, paying men for sex, and considerable role fluidity between buying and selling. In addition, approximately one-third of the women report only selling sex 1 day per week or less, and appear to be more socio-economically stable than women who sell sex more often. We argue that this data suggests the existence of an array of commercial sexual transactions outside of the socially recognized sex industry, and that social location may affect condom use.

Emotional labour and stress within mental health nursing

For many within the nursing profession, the work role involves a great deal of emotional work or 'emotional labour'. Such emotional work can be performed through 'surface acting' in which the individual simply feigns an appropriate emotion, or through 'deep acting' in which they actually try to feel the required emotion. The current study aims to aid understanding of the complex relationship between components of emotional labour and stress within the mental health nursing sector. Thirty-five mental health nurses completed questionnaires relating to a total of 122 nurse-patient interactions. Data were collected in relation to: (1) the duration and intensity of the interaction; (2) the variety of emotions expressed; (3) the degree of surface or deep acting the nurse performed; and (4) the perceived level of stress the interaction involved. Nurses also completed Daily Stress Indicators. Results suggest that: (1) emotional labour is positively correlated with both 'interaction stress' and daily stress levels; (2) the deeper the intensity of interactions and the more variety of emotions experienced, the more emotional labour was reported; and (3) surface acting was a more important predictor of emotional labour than deep acting. Implications for mental health nurses are outlined.