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Could faking your emotions at work be damaging your mental health?
If you've ever felt yourself putting on a brave face at work, you might want to think twice before doing so again, to protect your mental health.
It's normal to want to make a good impression in the workplace and have our colleagues like us, avoid confrontation and generally get on and get ahead, but according to a new study, the old survival tactic of 'fake it 'til you make it' can have more serious side effects than you might think, including feeling exhausted at work due to being 'inauthentic'.
The study, which tested more than 2,500 workers across a wide range of occupations and was led by Allison Gabriel from the University of Arizona, claims that there are usually two types of emotional labour at play in a work environment; surface acting and deep acting.
What is surface acting?
'Surface acting is faking what you're displaying to other people. Inside, you may be upset or frustrated, but on the outside, you're trying your best to be pleasant or positive', says Gabriel. Usually the intentions behind this kind of emotional suppression are more strategic and utilise a technique called 'impression management', where the employee's main interests lie with impressing superiors or looking good in front of other colleagues, thus hiding their true emotions.
What is deep acting?
Gabriel explains that 'deep acting is trying to change how you feel inside. When you're deep acting, you're actually trying to align how you feel with how you interact with other people.' Workers who deploy this tactic in the workplace often have more positive 'prosocial motives', like wanting to be a good co-worker and building positive, healthy relationships in the workplace.
'The main takeaway, is that deep actors -- those who are really trying to be positive with their co-workers - do so for prosocial reasons and reap significant benefits from these efforts.'
Why does this affect our health?
According to research revealed during Gabriel's study, which was published in the Journal Of Applied Psychology, those who took part in deep acting at work reaped significantly higher benefits than those who tried to regulate their emotions. They received higher levels of support from colleagues, like sharing physical workloads and emotional burdens, as well as experiencing more progress in their career goals and establishing a level of trust between colleagues.
Whereas those who leaned more towards surface acting (or 'regulators') suffered more negative consequences to their health and general wellbeing, due to feelings of exhaustion and inauthenticity.
This information coincides with stats recently released by Totaljobs, revealing that 33% of UK workers hide their true feelings at work by putting on a 'positive face' and 57% have felt emotions at work that they didn't feel they could express.
It seems that, for our health's sake, we all need to try and lead more authentic work lives that align our inner emotions with our outer actions. Sound too tricky to execute in an office environment? Gabriel suggests starting small:
'Maybe plastering on a smile to simply get out of an interaction is easier in the short run, but long term, it will undermine efforts to improve your health and the relationships you have at work.'
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