Essay # 3 step 3

My question regarding the topic is “How Physical labor and emotional labor are co-related with each other?”
As we talk about labor, there are different types of labor. Among them we are discussing about physical and emotional labor. We saw difference between physical and emotional labor, but they two are co-related with each other. I have used two outside source and two course texts from Studs Terkel “Working” to help answer of my question.

1.B.C Waitress’s hurt Feelings’ worth $6,000.” Editorial. Edmonton Sun. Edmonton Sun, 20 august, 2007. Web. 18 may, 2010.

This article tries to show the feeling of emotional labor. One of the waitresses who work in a beer tube is forced to wear bikinis by her boss. She told she feels uncomfortable to wear bikini in a bar full of drunken people. But the boss told her to find someone else to work the shift if she didn’t want to wear bikinis with the rest of the servers. She went to coat check room and cry and was too upset to continue the job. So, forcing to wear such things affects individual emotionally. She has to do physical work like serving the beer to customer and taking order from them. So, I think she suffered from both physically and emotionally. If there is emotional job then there is physical job too. So they are related with each other.

2.“Our aches and pain are greatly influenced by emotions.”McClatchy-Tribune News Service. St.Louis Post-Dispatch. St.Louis Post, 14 august, 2006.Web. 19 may, 2010.

This article straightforwardly shows the relationship between physical and emotional labor. According to psychologist Ryan Niemiec “emotion and physical labor are critically connected on every level.” The statement “Anything that happens in body happens in the mind and anything that happens in the mind happens in the body” try to show the link between physical and emotion. That means physical stress has emotional stress and emotional stress has physical stress too.

3.Terkel Studs.”Working”, Waitress(1972),page 293-298

In this chapter, Terekel took an interview of waitress (Dolores Danet) and try to find the condition of waitress. This topic mainly shows the emotional feeling of waitress. She use some of words like resentment, self- conscious, sense of guilt try to shows the emotional feeling of waitress (296). In the interview she says “It builds and builds and builds in your guts. Near crying. I can think about it cause you’re tiered” by crying softly which shows that she is emotional as well as physical labor too (298). She had to run around the table and take care of customers. She was mentally and physically tiered. So from this interview we can conclude that emotional labor is connected with physical labor although we just see the emotional labor of waitress.

4.Terkel Studs. “Working”, Who Built the Pyramids? (1972), page xxxi-xxxviii

This topic is the interview with one of the physical labor (Mike Lefevre) who works in a steel mill. His job is physical work. He has to do strict muscle work like an old mule. We think that he doesn’t have any emotional stress, but he has to tolerate emotional stress too. They are also suffered from their foreman. Foreman gives them a pressure to work fast due to which they get nervous and suffer from emotional stress. In the interview one of the guys told “The first thing happen at work: when the arms start moving, the brain stops” which shows physical connection with emotion. When he does physical work then he gets senseless and cannot think anything. This directly shows that physical labor is co-related with emotional labor.