Emotional labour in law

Legal professionals have to do a great deal of work with emotions. They will often need to manage clients’ emotions at the same time as regulating their own responses. This can involve high levels of emotional labour (Westaby, 2014; Harris, 2002). The term ‘emotional labour’ was coined by sociologist Arlie Hochschild (2012) who carried out a study of air stewardesses and noted that their work required them to project a calm and composed demeanour at all times. Hochschild suggests that projecting certain emotional states or responses can be done by either ‘surface acting’ or ‘deep acting’. If an individual is surface acting, they are simply pretending to experience emotions. If they are deep acting then they will alter their own feelings and emotions to meet the expectations of their role. Although it is not always the case, both forms of acting can have a potentially detrimental impact on an individual’s wellbeing. If someone is frequently surface acting, it can lead to them separating their real feelings from their work life and can estrange them from their authentic self. Additionally, surface acting is linked to higher levels of emotional exhaustion and burnout (severe emotional exhaustion). LawCare’s recent Life in the Law report [Tip: hold Ctrl and click a link to open it in a new tab. (Hide tip)] (2021) highlighted that burnout can be a significant issue within the legal profession.

It is important for legal professionals to acknowledge the emotional labour present in their role so that they can monitor the impact it is having on them. Workplace surface acting can have a knock-on effect on workers’ marital lives through relationship conflict and marital partner discontent (Krannitz et al., 2015). Not all emotional labour has a negative impact – it can help you feel engaged and invested in your work. However, if you are finding that the emotional labour you expend is beginning to have a detrimental effect then it is important to identify this as soon as possible. You can then think of strategies to lessen the impact, like reducing your direct contact with specific clients, building in breaks and periods of mindfulness, examining the boundaries and coping strategies you have in place, discussing particularly challenging clients with your team and ensuring you having peer support in place.

This video explains more about emotional labour and how to manage it.

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Transcript: Video 5  Mathijs on emotional labour

MATHIJIS

Emotional labour is part of every job. There's going to be periods in your own job when you're going to be stretched emotionally. It's the work of your vocation that has an emotional component. And this can be around supporting clients or colleagues when they're really feeling stressed and strained. And it can also mean that it really does feel quite pressurised for yourself because you're dealing with people that are really upset or very angry. And this can be - is - it's labour. It's work.

And three things that I can think of that can be helpful in managing emotional labour - the first is around reminding yourself about why it is that you're in the job that you're in. Ideally, people would say it's because they love their job or they feel it's their calling, it's very important. But sometimes, it can be really practical reasons that keep people in their work and remind them of why it's worthwhile. Some of those things - because they need to pay the bills or they have rent to pay. But other reasons can be that this job is a stepping stone for you in terms of the next stages for your career.

Another way of managing this emotional labour and the toll that it can take is about creative problem-solving - so how it is that you can structure your day or your week so you're not being worn out too quickly in terms of the working week - that you might pick to have clients that you know that are going to be quite draining at the beginning of the day. You might spread out certain clients in a way that gives you a good break so you don't feel as drained by the work.

Another point is that emotional labour is just going to be present in your job. And sometimes, this emotional labour can be really rewarding. So I've talked about it in terms of a negative - the negative ways it can have an impact. But it can also have a positive impact because some of the emotional labour that you might be employed in can be some of the most rewarding aspects of your work. When you see someone really making a breakthrough or you've made a real difference to their lives, this may have been really draining and took a lot out of you. But you can see that it has a real impact and a benefit for others.

End transcript: Video 5  Mathijs on emotional labour

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Video 5  Mathijs on emotional labour