In Colombian companies, a terrifying paradigm has been established that affects the motivation of human talent: PRODUCTIVITY, PRODUCTIVITY AND MORE PRODUCTIVITY.
That's right, dear friends, we are only pursuing quantitative results leaving qualitative ones aside; This situation, which ultimately, degenerates the emotional state of workers in our companies and leads to thinking about figures and mandatory goals instead of a holistic work in harmony.
In this context we must recognize that in the market, there are professionals and management experts who are beginning to recognize a clearly modern aspect of work, especially in service businesses: EMOTIONAL WORK. It has been talked about for a long time, but we are only beginning to understand it as a different kind of work from productive work. Emotional work is a kind of work in which the feelings of the employees are the tool of their profession.
Sentiment is in a way a part of job performance; rather, how to explain when an employee is happy and their productivity is directly proportional to their mood and vice versa.
The tasks of human talent that are relevant to the service, and in particular the work of direct contact with customers, can involve a relatively high degree of emotional work. One person who handles customer complaints all day, for example, treats a lot of upset people and few seem happy and what is worse, rarely do any of the customers stop to wish you good day.
Jobs such as waiter, counter or grocery store clerk, flight attendant, lawyer, receptionist and security guard, among others, have a fairly strong dose of emotional effort, including positively developed contact jobs with the public involve emotional work. Just interacting with another human being, even on the phone, induces a certain amount of stress. The person handling the situation has to be fully alert, focus on what they are doing, and be aware of doing as much work as possible for the client.
A person can handle a few tiny emotional episodes during a given period, before they begin to feel tense, recharged, tired, and drained. How many times have we not heard a service employee say: "Today I will not bear one more customer"; "Today I will not serve another customer."
This is how the contact surcharge and other secondary effects of emotional work full of tension can manifest it in the feelings, attitudes and behavior of the person who works, in several significant ways:
- Feelings of apathy, tiredness, psychological withdrawal, withdrawal from the immediate situation and hostility towards the people who are the source of the overload, that is, the clients Physical fatigue, high levels of stress, moodiness and irritability Indifference towards work and client; "I don't give a damn" behavior that alienates the customer; loss of interest in the quality of one's work; Lack of personal pride or sense of accomplishment Indifference of feelings about the situation; an emotional "prostration" reaction pattern that becomes robotic and programmed.
These reactions to emotional labor can have two consequences:
- First, it is harmful to the person who has them. It can produce psychological tension that affects personal life and make work life unpleasant and indifferent. Second, the negative emotional reaction experienced by the employee reaches the client, contaminating the quality of moments of truth. An employee who feels apathetic, withdrawn, emotionally hostile, or prostrate, and without any interest in his work, will convey those feelings to the customer and create a negative impression of him and the company.
