Whereas Hochschild suggests how emotional labor can have negative consequences for teachers, nurses, and other care employees, who interact directly with clients. Other scholar stress how workers can minimize its harmful effects. Some note how emotional labor can make caring for others aim or rewarding experience. For instance, making emotional sacrifices for their students or putting on an act can sometimes make teachers feel good about themselves, who want to be thought of as selfless individuals. Acting jovial can bring some students out of their emotional shells. The emotional strains of caring for children can also be a source of personal growth and motivate teachers to learn new educational techniques. Employees who are highly committed to caring for their clients, can also minimize the negative effects of emotional labor, by categorizing clients and then relating to each category using different emotional management strategies. For instance, studies have found that in abortion clinics, workers will label patients as easy if they know what medical procedures they want and are comfortable with their decision. Because these clients respond positively to the services they receive, they are more likely to make workers feel appreciated and helpful. Therefore, workers tend to make bigger emotional investments in these types of patients and try to form friendships with them. Workers will label patients as ambivalent if they are angry about their situation and uncertain about what decision they should make. These patients can easily make workers feel like failures, because no matter what they suggest, it will likely be questioned or rejected. So workers emotionally detached themselves from these patients, and convinced themselves they are providing ambivalent patients the space they need to arrive at a decision. Workers will label patients as hard if they suffer from multiple traumatic situations, such as having been sexually assaulted, being very young and at risk of being killed by their pregnancy. Workers do not feel they can solve all of these problems and so will create boundaries around the problems they think they can fix, and pour their emotions into helping those particular problems. In providing this more targeted form of care, workers are less apt to be overwhelmed by feelings of futility. Others challenge the assumption that the emotional labor that individuals exercise at work spills over into their private lives. You will recall that scholars like Smith and Climate suggests that the emotional detachment that medical students learn at hospitals often carries over into their private lives and causes them to be less personal with their spouses, partners, etc. Others reject this idea, suggesting that individuals employ a variety of techniques to maintain a healthy boundary between their public and private roles. For instance, individuals use several different techniques for entering and exiting work roles. These include, transition rituals, for example, playing certain kinds of music while commuting to and from work, boundary markers, for instance, refusing to think about work until one puts on a work uniform, and psychological preparation. The later technique takes two basic forms induced emotions where, for example, workers emotionally pump themselves up about meeting with friends after work or cognitive rehearsals, where they plan in their heads. For example, what one is going to talk to family about at dinner, say to your kid who was caught cheating at school. Both strategies make the transition to and from work smoother and less emotionally jolting. Workers can also ensure that they do not get too caught up in their work roles by creating front stages and back stages. Front stage is where one acts professionally and strives for flawless performance. Backstage is where one relaxes one's role requirements, takes a time out, has moments of truth with coworkers, etc. Perhaps you can think of examples of backstage is in your work setting. Well, you're almost finished with this course on the challenges of modern caregiving. Writing over a century ago, social theorist Max Veber expressed his deep concern about the fate of the ethic of Caritas, or care. This principle, which different faith traditions have promoted, if not always practiced positive the ultimate worth of every suffering individual that others, irrespective of their group affiliations, were obliged to honor through acts of compassion. Veber feared that as the modern forces of rationalization permeated Western society, they would extinguish the sacred qualities of humans that have previously dignified, vulnerable strangers and motivated individuals to care for them. In the next module, you were asked to choose to study one of two controversies that relate to Vaber's concerns about dehumanization and indifference to suffering.
