Emotional labour: a comparison between fast food and traditional service work

Abstract

There is a strand of thinking on service work which sees it as significantly different from other kinds of work due to the `emotional' as well as the physical and mental labour which it entails. This study seeks to investigate and compare the `emotional labour' involved in traditional service work and fast food service work. It examines whether there are significant differences in the kind or degree of emotional labour demanded in the more personalised service of traditional restaurant outlets from that required in the standardised service provided in fast food restaurants and whether workers develop and adopt different strategies for dealing with the emotional demands placed on them.