Hello all,
To me Emotional Labour is defined as communicating and connecting with other people even if you aren't in the mindset or mood to do so at that very moment. Godin, in his podcast, shared a story that makes sense, and makes you think. He said that one person said they felt sorry for flight attendants because they have to be nice to you and have a smile on their face even if they really don't want to if they're angry, sad, etc. If you think about, that is life on a day to day basis.
In the customer service field, where I work, you have to interact with managers, co-workers, and customers on every shift. A lot of the time, customers can be unhappy because of something that happened to them during their day, which makes them seem like they are angry at the world and they take their frustration out on the associates of a store. I've been in that position plenty of times, and think "Oh my gosh, they're being so rude, so mean to me for no reason - I've done nothing." This then gets me angry/upset and to the point where I don't want to talk to communicate with anyone else because now i'm frustrated. You can't act that way though, you have to be kind, and helping and say "Have a good day" even if, in that moment, it kills you to say it! It's part of the job, and you chose to be a part of that when you signed up for it.
I follow a few blogs of people that I think do a really good job of promoting 'emotional labour.'
Most of the blogs I follow are by 'famous' Youtube beauty gurus as it is a big community on Youtube and something that I'm very interested in, and keep up with.
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| Marlena's Youtube homepage |
The first one, and the one that I've been following for quite some time now is a blog called 'MakeUpGeek.' It's owned by a beauty You-tuber, makeup artist and now a cosmetic brand owner, Marlena. I like her blog because it shows the videos that she's put on youtube, contests, giveaways, and her products that you can purchase and try for yourself. The biggest thing I like about her blog though, is that she has these "Weekly Challenges" that you can do where she finds an inspiration picture and you have to create a makeup look using that. She creates 'polls' on her website called 'Have your say' where she asks you a question about anything about products, etc and you get to vote. Youtube is also big for her because she asks people to request ideas to her, it's more of what the viewers want to see, and it's step by step tutorials to help people learn what she knows. It helps her connect with her viewers from Youtube and her loyal subscribers/ followers of her blog and lets her know that people are actually looking to her for inspiration, and getting to know the real Marlena, which in turn, gets her 'return customers' and more subscribers, making her more in demand. I don't generally go to the blog to see Marlena though, I go because I like what she posts, and I'm genuinely interested in what she says about products, when she mentions new products, and on her youtube when she does reviews on them.
Click here Marlena's Blog!
The last 'blog' I follow is more of a community blog. It's called Pinterest. You make your own account- which is free, and you go through different categories of your choice like Your style, Beauty products, photography, find pictures, or sayings that you like, and 'pin' them to your wall. You can share this page with other people, people can follow you and you can be in the loop with each other. It's actually really cool, you can also comment on each others posts and re-pin their items to your wall if you liked it so much. This way that particular image or saying is sent around to a bunch of people connecting us in some way. If you know people and they start using this, you can engage in building a friendship by talking to each other and because you have things that you both like thats more things in common with that person. It's really interesting and you get to see everyone else's inspirational pieces, and build from that. This website does not offer you any free gifts or what not, I mean, if I could have what i re-pin for free then I'd be super happy! but it's not about that. This website is like an online 'inspiration board.' Those boards that people make and hang up with inspirational pictures of what they want at some point in their life, whether it be a sports car, that dream home or things as simple as a dress.
The last 'blog' I will be talking about is more of a Vlog (video blog). The ever famous and popular You Tube. Now, over the years, I've come to the realization that I've learnt A LOT from youtube, and have a slight addiction ...okay more so then slight, I have a big addiction but good reasons! I am 'subscribed' to quite a lot of Youtubers, from Singers, to comedians, but the category that takes up the most of my subscription list is the beauty department. I, like many other people, watch makeup tutorials to learn specific skills, and specific make-up looks that I wish to achieve and the way that these women/ young adults explain things really help. As a visual learner myself, I like to rely on these videos because it actually sinks in to my head and I remember them a lot more then if I were to just read something and be done with that. These girls also give product reviews on things they bought or if a company sent them something to try out. They let you know the good, the bad and the ugly. Most of the time, a lot of the more popular beauty gurus even have giveaways and contests. To get more looks, they even collaborate with other youtubers. The girls don't have to do these things for people, they choose to upload these videos because this is a hobby of theirs and they know other people want to learn certain techniques, or other things so they upload for our enjoyment.
Some youtube beauty Gurus also have vlogs, which is a video compilation of their day, which gets lets you get to know the real person behind the camera. The people I follow, i know are to be genuine and usually say that they spent a whole day filming tutorials because they wanted us to have something to watch from them. They genuinely care about the viewer and take time out of their days to set up a space with good lighting, etc, record this video, edit and upload. They try so hard to please the audience when they have a life outside of their computer. A lot of these youtubers have also made partnership with Youtube because they cared so much and got a lot of viewers and subscribers and worked so hard to please people. They really do understand what emotional labour is.
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| Youtube Homepage |
Click here to Go to Youtube
Overall, in summary, Online media has become a big part of the 21st century and has even become a part of my life, and will continue to do so. People will continue to use sites like the ones mentioned above and this will even start a lot of new jobs, and job opportunities. The people that will go further in the future with these jobs are the people that take the initiative to actually start up a blog, or website. Once being a part of the community, they will start to understand what emotional labour is, on a personal level. The people of these communities truly do a lot of work in their day just for us, that we won't fully understand until we take the time out of our own days to do what they do.
Thank-you
Veronica K
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