Abstract
Background: As the service industry develops, the proportion of emotional laborers is gradually increasing, and their occupational health problems are gradually becoming serious social problems. Researchers must consider various factors, from the personal to the organizational levels, to prevent health problems from arising in the workplace. Many intervention studies have investigated the health and wellbeing of workers, but mainly at the individual level, even though an organization’s interest and efforts are essential for addressing work-related health problems. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to verify the importance of organizations’ interests to protect emotional laborers from work-related health problems. Methods: We used data obtained through the 4th Korean Working Condition Survey of 2014. The study cohort comprised 5857 survey participants over the age of 18 years. Employers, self-employed persons and professional soldiers were excluded. Logistic regression was employed to identify associations between an emotional expression guide and work-related health problems using SPSS 22.0 statistical software. Results: In the absence of an emotional expression guide, the risk of work-related physical and psychological health problems was increased. Even after adjusting for confounding variables, the risks were statistically maintained, particularly headache (odds ratio (OR) 1.798; 95% confidence interval 95% CI: 1.288–2.508), lower limb muscular pain (OR: 1.627; 95% CI: 1.130–2.342), general fatigue (OR: 1.582; 95% CI: 1.077–2.326) and depressive symptom (OR: 6.149; 95% CI: 1.198–31.563). Conclusion: This study showed that organizations’ interests and efforts to prevent workers from being harmed by the effects of emotional labor are important in the prevention of psychosocial and physical health problems; therefore, a national interest in supporting emotional laborers and in introducing policies to support these workers should be established.
Highlights
Emotional labor refers to carrying out work in a manner desired by the employer, regardless of the employee’s feelings [1]
A total of 5758 participants were included in our study, the data being sourced from the 4th Korean Working Condition Survey (KWCS)
This study showed that emotional labor could be a major risk factor of the physical and psychosocial health problems of emotional workers
Summary
Emotional labor refers to carrying out work in a manner desired by the employer, regardless of the employee’s feelings [1]. In a report on the status of emotional workers in Korea [2], emotional workers were defined as persons who deal directly with customers for more than half of their working hours. High emotional demands in the workplace have been shown to have negative effects on physical and psychosocial health [5]. For this reason, emotional labor is becoming an important. Many intervention studies have investigated the health and wellbeing of workers, but mainly at the individual level, even though an organization’s interest and efforts are essential for addressing work-related health problems. The purpose of this study was to verify the importance of organizations’ interests to protect emotional laborers from work-related health problems.
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