이동․방문노동자의 감정노동: 수도검침원의 사례를 중심으로 = Mobile visiting work and emotional labor: A case study of water meter readers

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

This study aims to reveal phenomena of emotional labor that differ from those presented in existing emotional labor research by examining mobile labor, particularly the emotional labor of mobile visiting workers. Mobile visiting labor differs from the subjects of traditional emotional labor studies in terms of the location where services are provided and the dimensions of customer needs. The study focuses on water meter readers, whose work inevitably intrudes into the customers’ spatiotemporal domain and infringes upon their property. As a result, conventional approaches to addressing negative customer responses—primarily involving deep acting or surface acting, as highlighted in existing emotional labor research—may have limitations. This investigation reveals that emotional labor strategies such as situation selection and avoidance, previously overlooked in existing literature, are actively employed. Through qualitative research based on in-depth interviews, this study uncovers the emotional labor of water meter readers and highlights the expanding scope of emotional labor within mobile visiting work. Notably, while prior studies typically focused on emotional labor within a singular organizational site, this research considers the diversity of service provision environments, demonstrating that emotional laborers can employ a range of emotional labor strategies that were not previously considered.