Emotional labour of rural women in difficult geographies of an emerging economy: narratives of community healthcare workers of India

Abstract

This study attempts to find the existence, execution and outcome of emotional labour in the work of community healthcare workers. Through a ten-month field study comprising in-depth interviews with 26 accredited social health workers (ASHAs), we found that their work requires emotional labour. Our study shows that they use 'attached approach', which is similar to deep acting, and 'detached approach', which is similar to surface acting, to perform emotional labour. We also found that surface acting resulted in minimal negative effect in case of negative situation and in well-being due to attenuation of work benefits in case of positive situation at the workplace. Deep acting in a positive situation led to emotional permeability between work and personal life, whereas in the event of a negative situation, it led to stress. Furthermore, deep acting decreases their effectiveness and efficiency due to associated stress that could have detrimental effects on the beneficiaries of healthcare.