Welcome to Emotional Labour

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How do you feel about work?


Emotional Labour
is a newsletter about work and all the emotions it can throw up within us. Boredom. Burnout. Pride. Hunger. Excitement. Jealousy. What-ifs. How do you manage those things? 

It’ll feature interviews with people who are in jobs which require the delicate handling of both their own and other peoples’ emotions. People who have made some bold career choices and sacrifices. And people who just have a lot of opinions about work and are fascinating to talk to. 

I started this because I have friends and family who do incredible work, which is interesting and inspiring and difficult. I’ve watched them grow and be shaped by their roles. Nurses. Stay-at-home dads. Social workers. Their stories are amazing, and say something about the world we’re living in. They often invest a lot of themselves into their work. Yet I rarely read these kinds of stories in magazines.

I want to learn about their work and how it makes them feel, and also start some conversations about how our working lives are impacting our personal lives – from money to mental health to romance. 

I’ll explore how certain emotions can drive our work, or detract from it. How to start a business. How to get out of a business. How your thoughts about money, happiness and success are affecting your career. 

Why do we do what we do? That’s the question I’m planning to ask with Emotional Labour

Articles will be published in an occasional newsletter. Subscribe on the Emotional Labour homepage and I’ll make sure the newsletter drops into your inbox, and do forward the newsletter on to a friend if you think they’d like it.


P.S The phrase ‘emotional labour’ means different things to different people. It was first coined by the sociologist Arlie Hochschild in her 1983 book, The Managed Heart. Here she is in 2018 explaining what she means by the term in The Atlantic.

P.P.S I’ll wedge in some of the things I’ve been enjoying lately too. Because I want to talk about the minimum wage, but I’m also into books and food and paintings.


 
Olivia GaganInterview