Emotional labor in service work: McDonald's and casino industries

Service Workers

As Robin Leidner's (1993) "Over the Counter: McDonald's" and Jeffrey J. Sallaz's (2002) "The House Rules: Autonomy and Interests Among Service Workers in the Contemporary Casino Industry" both clearly demonstrate, service work involves a lot more than the routinized tasks that are typically seen and thought of when these occupations are observed or considered. Though these two researchers explore very different industries and work environment, their findings both demonstrate the necessity of social interactions and "emotional work" in the performance of these service jobs (Leidner, 1993; Sallaz, 2002). An exploration of these research articles and of the issues they discuss shows the importance of the emotional aspects of customer interactions in the fast food industry, casinos, and service jobs in general.

As described by both authors, the ability for service workers to give customer a happy experience and one that is otherwise defined as "good" by the company at which the worker is employed -- fast and courteous, in the case of McDonald's, and relaxed and communicative, in the case of the casino world -- depends on the ability of the service worker to connect with the consumer (Leidner, 1993; Sallaz, 2002). This is where the concept of "emotion work" comes in; the service worker is expected as part of their job duties to actually change the emotional state of the consumer through direct interaction, something that is especially true and important for profitability in the casino industry but that is utilized on a more basic and industrial scale in fast food (Leidner, 1993; Sallaz, 2002). Understanding how the actual social interaction breaks down in this relationship makes the emotional work clear.

Sallaz's (2002) description of casino workers includes more detail regarding the emotional work that dealers perform, and this work is more involved than the emotional work of McDonald's workers, making this the better scenario for examination (Leidner, 2002). Dealers are required according to casino policy to make customers feel relaxed and at ease, and to help put them in the same spending/gambling mood that all of the other elements of the decor and operation are meant to create, as well (Sallaz, 2002). In order to do this, the casino employs primarily young female dealers and encourages them to happily chat with the players regardless of how the action is going or how much tipping occurs (Sallaz, 2002). In reality, things don't actually operate quite this way, with dealers clearly motivated to act differently depending on how the tipping is going -- motivated by their own gain rather than by the casinos -- but this highlights a problem with the setup of the employer/employee relationship, and does not question the basic premise of the idealized relationship between the service worker and the consumer in terms of emotional work (Sallaz, 2002).