More from @primalpoly

Geoffrey Miller

@primalpoly

Feb 2

Naive hypothesis:
A lot of the Gen Z negativity around work arises from the increased load of 'emotional labor' required by a lot of service jobs - smiling, being patient, handling rude customers, tolerating shoplifting, etc.

Back in 1983, Arlie Hochschild published her classic book 'The Managed Heart: Commercialization of Human Feeling', which analyzed the distinctive emotional & self-control demands of customer-facing service work, compared to agricultural/industrial work.

You could be a grumpy plowman, coal miner, or factory worker. Didn't matter much. But now, you're not allowed to be a grumpy salesperson, barista, flight attendant, or customer service rep. Especially in America, these newer roles demand a level of simulated cheerfulness, empathy with customers, & self-control that can feel pretty inauthentic and alienating. I wonder if this contributes to the huge rise in depression and anxiety in younger adults.

On top of this 'emotional labor', there's a new layer of 'ideological labor', in which young people not only have to feign cheerfulness, but also have to pretend they believe in ideological and political values that they don't really care about -- the endless diversity training, DEI initiatives, & political peer pressure.

So, I have some sympathy with younger adults who feel that their jobs require an onerous level of emotional labor, and ideological labor, above and beyond the practical requirements of the job.

tldr: It's not just the nominal jobs that are exhausting them. It's the corporate expectations of feigned cheerfulness & mandatory wokeness that amplify the exhaustion & alienation.

PS Of course, service & sales jobs aren't new. By the time Hochschild published her book in 1983, they'd been around for decades - which was exactly why she considered them worth analyzing.

But, I suspect that modern work involves a degree of managerial control over worker behavior (e.g. constant video surveillance, customer ratings & feedback systems, employee attitude training, increased reliance on tipping) that goes far beyond what service jobs required in the 1950s through 1980s.

PPS Also, there may be big individual differences in how onerous this kind of emotional & ideological labor feels.
People who score higher on the Big Five personality traits of Agreeableness, Extroversion, Conscientiousness, Openness, and Emotional Stability may have an easier time being cheerful, talkative, attentive, accepting, and resilient when interacting with diverse customers.
So, if you're reading about 'emotional labor', and you think it sounds easy to be cheerful and polite with everyone all the time, you may have Big Five traits that make it much easier than others find it to be.

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Geoffrey Miller

@primalpoly

May 25, 2022

The gun issue isn't just a problem of diverging partisan values. It's also a problem of widespread, basic, empirical ignorance about guns, especially among many gun control advocates.

Let me explain in this thread....

Until about 10 years ago, I thought we needed much stronger gun control. I'd been a registered Democrat most of my adult life. I hadn't fired a gun since age 12 at summer camp. I was ignorant about firearms, & I was ignorant about my ignorance.