Interactions in Expert Service Work

Abstract

Using participant observation and in-depth interviews, the author explores the experiences of a relatively new form of semiprofessionals, personal trainers, to advance our understandings of the complexities of interactive service work. Personal training is a compelling example of the increasing number of occupations that require workers to use emotional labor and specialized knowledge to provide customized service for individual clients. The author examines a range of service interactions that occur in personal training sessions to explore how workers demonstrated their professionalism and negotiated the competing demands of their jobs. This study provides an extension to the extant understanding of “expert service work” by highlighting the unique features of hybrid forms of work emerging in the postindustrial labor market. Furthermore, it extends implications about workers who are in a rapidly expanding, but not yet fully credentialized, profession and how they manage their selves to legitimate their contributions for potential clients. This research also raises a number of questions surrounding the gendered accomplishment of professionalism.