According to a new study, employees who must tailor their visible emotions to suit their workplace may have other issues.
It’s bad enough that you’ve got to fake a smile, pretend you’re not annoyed, or feign other emotions with customers. Surely such factors can take their toll on just about everyone. Now, researchers have unsurprisingly found that this also may lead to heavy drinking after the workday is over.
Researchers at Pennsylvania State University and the University of Buffalo studied several jobs that involved working in the public eye. Included were jobs in nursing, teaching, and food service, for starters. These jobs were chosen because employees are oftentimes told to smile for the sake of others despite their own feelings.
The study used phone interview data from a survey compiled by The National Institutes of Health completed by almost 1600 people. What they found was the more people had to control emotions at work, the more likely they were to drink.
According to the study, there’s a bit more to it than just faking emotions. Those that worked in jobs where relationships with customers aren’t a one-off thing drank less.
For example, a nurse might fake emotions for a good reason, such as maintaining a strong relationship. This had a less profound effect on drinking habits than say, someone at a call center. Employees at call centers or in retail usually aren’t going to develop a long-term relationship with the customer. They are faking or suppressing emotions for someone they might never see again.
These employees were heavier drinkers than those in more rewarding jobs. Drinking was also exacerbated by the impulsiveness and autonomy of the employee. Those that drank the heaviest tended to be impulsive and were frequently told what to do at work.
Alicia Grandey, professor of psychology at Penn State, hopes that this study will help improve workplaces. “Smiling as part of your job sounds like a really positive thing, but doing it all day can be draining,” Grandey said.
She added that, “Employers may want to consider allowing employees to have a little more autonomy at work, like they have some kind of choice on the job,” because it may help relieve some of the emotional stress.
Do you work in a job that requires you to tailor your emotions to clients, customers, or patients? Have you also found it draining or emotionally stressful? Make sure you’re careful about how you cope.
