Emotional Labor and Crisis Response: Working on the Razor's Edge

Sharon H. Mastracci · Mary Ellen Guy · Meredith A. Newman

Jan 2012 · M.E. Sharpe

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The authors of the award-winning Emotional Labor now investigate how that book's concepts are actually applied in public service delivery, focusing on crisis responders who work in the most emotionally demanding situations.

Emotional Labor and Crisis Response goes inside the stressful world of suicide, rape, and domestic hotline workers, EMTs, triage nurses, and agency/department spokespersons who are the initial faces of the organization and who deal with the public immediately following crises.

The authors explore how these public servants interpret unwritten feeling rules, and how they integrate them into the executution of their duties in crisis situations. In an instant, and faced with panicked and traumatized victims, how do they size up a situation and decide how to proceed? How do they establish trust and elicit cooperation? How do they perceive their roles as representatives of the state, yet also as fellow citizens working under extreme pressure?

Their stories provide powerful insights into the nature of emotional labor and its role in public service.