So I still haven’t finished reading this fifty page article which I was sent in 2016, but thought I’d post it here for posterity and to share it. A compilation of responses on emotional labour. It’s interesting (and distressing) to look at all 50 pages of examples which we don’t notice in daily life.

“I often talk about emotional labor as being the work of caring. And it’s not just being caring, it’s that thing where someone says “I’ll clean if you just tell me what to clean!” because they don’t want to do the mental work of figuring it out. Caring about all the moving parts required to feed the occupants at dinnertime, caring about social management. Caring about noticing that something has changed – like, it’s not there anymore, or it’s on re, or it’s broken.

It’s a substantial amount of overhead, having to care about everything. It ought to be a shared burden, but half the planet is socialized to trick other people into doing more of the work.”