57th chat, Monday May 2nd 2016: emotional labor

Moderated by @lettersfromvani
Storify (pdf, html) by @PoorCharlotte

Suggested readings:

• Wingfield, Adia Harvey. “How ‘Service With a Smile’ Takes a Toll on Women.” The Atlantic 26 Jan. 2016. theatlantic.com/business/archive/2016/01/gender-emotional-labor/427083/ (Trigger warning: specific descriptions of workplace racism and misogyny)
• Accardi, Maria. “Emotional Labor and Library Instruction.” Librarian Burnout. April 23, 2015. https://librarianburnout.com/2015/04/23/emotional-labor-and-library-instruction/

Discussion questions:

• Q1. What does emotional labor look like (and feel like)?
• Q2. Is emotional labor part of your work, and if so, how? Is it part of your colleagues/coworkers’ work?
• Q3. What are implicit and explicit expectations around the kinds of emotional labor library/archival/info workers do (and how do these relate to intersections of power and privilege)?
• Q4.  How could naming emotional labor inform and transform critical approaches to librarianship? Beyond naming it, what else can we do?