Thursday, May 23, 2013
COM 250 / Week #8 Discussion: Emotion Labor: A Commodity to be Paid?
In today's career world, especially in the retail business, employees are required to display particular emotions or feelings deemed "appropriate" for the business setting. As a college teacher, sometimes I am under the pressure to take it down a few notches when it comes to my critique on student course work, because if I honestly point out a mistake I might end up with a bad "customer review" of my teaching which has increasingly become a "product." To be honest, I feel bad about it. I believe those who are forced to display particular feelings no matter what they truly feel are in the same situation. Do today's organizations push too much to make our human interaction less genuine and more like a "commodity"? Whose fault is it?
Wednesday, May 22, 2013
COM 250 / Week #8 Discussion: Our Career Life Does Not Look Beautiful Anymore, What’s Wrong?
Our textbook identifies four
trends in the relationship between organizations and individuals. According to
the new social contract theory and contingent worker theory, our relationship with
our workplace has become more and more contingent. Workers are more and more
disposable, because there always are cheaper workers somewhere on the planet.
Our job becomes more and more alienated labor (how about emotional labor). “We are all temps now,” as one corporate CEO
lamented. Jobs have been the body tissue
of the society where our collective identity, passion, dream, and character
grow. Not any more! What’s the problem with today’s organizations?
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