Putting in the emotional labor in student life

My mind has recently been fixated on Seth Godin’s idea of emotional labor from his book Linchpin. It’s the idea that in the past a job meant showing up, putting in the physical work, and clocking out. Jobs today don’t have the same types of physical requirements, but if we really want to make a lasting contribution, or, a lot of times, simply do the job well, we need to put in a different kind of labor – the emotional kind.

Seth puts it this way: “I’m proposing that you embrace the fact that the only thing you get paid for (unless you’re a brilliant programmer, chemist or race car driver) is doing emotional labor. Bringing guts and ideas and love to work when you and others don’t feel like it. That’s your job. And the people who do that the best keep getting rewarded for it. Dishwashers don’t get to whine about their chapped fingers, and white collar workers like us shouldn’t whine about how hard it is to be generous and creative and flexible.” (from here)

This really describes our job, right?

But there are days where I find I’ve done my job without doing much of this. Even in the people business, we can go through the motions or hide behind email and tasks.

We need to be willing to put in the effort to care.

To look that student in the eye and respond to their request person to person.

To hear the story behind the disciplinary case.

To bring a genuine energy when we don’t necessarily feel it.

To be present, make a personal connection, go the extra mile.

That part’s not always easy. It’s work. It’s the reason we get paid to do what we do.

But from what I can tell, it’s also the only place where lasting impact happens – where this job really becomes worth doing.