The emotional burdens of public service: rules, trust, and emotional labour in emergency medical services

ABSTRACT

Street-level emergency medical services (EMS) providers are charged with assisting others in potentially life-threatening incidents while suppressing emotions that would betray the seriousness of the situation. This paper poses a central question about their work: in what ways do aspects of organizational life, like rules and trust, influence the experience of emotional labour? Red tape is shown to increase ‘false face’ emotional labour, while consistent rule administration, supervisor support, and trust decreases false face in the form of hiding emotions.

IMPACT

The experience of emotional labour is key element impacting human behaviour in critical front-line positions. This paper examines the role of organizational factors in shaping emotional labour, and highlights the importance of rule characteristics and relationships. Managers must consider the emotional effects of rule administration and red tape, while also creating organizational mechanisms to foster support and trust in an effort to reduce emotional burdens on front-line personnel.

KEYWORDS:

• Emotional labour
• emergency medical services (EMS)
• street-level bureaucracy
• trust

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).