I imagine that this topic has been discussed on this subreddit before, but I feel the need to vent my frustrations about it. I've worked food service and retail, and these jobs obviously require a great deal of emotional labor. But I didn't bother to consider how white collar work wouldn't be much different. Recently, I heard my manager talking about how human beings are naturally selfish and a non-hierarchical society would never work. It may be evidence of my naivete, but I feel disappointed. I've always had an intellectual understanding that there will always be a power relation between a person and their manager, but up until that point I had been pleasantly surprised that he didn't micromanage and never expected us to work more than 40 hours a week.
It can be profoundly isolating and anxiety provoking to realize that your beliefs are often the opposite of almost everyone else that you work with, especially when compulsive socializing is also a part of the job (e.g., the team usually takes lunch together, you usually need to go to others for help, etc.). When I was in college, I thought that leftist ideas weren't popular because of how successfully the education system, propaganda, and the culture at large inculcated people with beliefs that were hostile to them. Now I realize that this is only part of the story. When the people you spend most of your waking life around stand for so much that you're against, it's a heavy emotional burden to carry. While Plato taught me that seeing ideas as a part of you is a mistake, I can't help but think that I'm hiding part of myself in order to be around my coworkers (and especially my manager). The incongruity between one's beliefs and values and the social world that surrounds one may be too much to bear for some people. At least, it might be too much for me. I'm trying to deal with it by taking more time to myself during lunch time.
I was on call a few months ago, and one of my coworkers asked how it was going on a daily basis. I told him the truth: it sucked, I didn't like it. When the next person on the rotation took over, he said that it was fine even though it was busy. This elicited a more positive response, unsurprisingly. It seems that all kinds of workers have to suppress their emotions on a daily basis. Can you imagine what this must do to our health? Gabor Mate's recent book explores how emotional suppression contributes to physical illnesses. So even if you have a job that doesn't involve strenuous physical activity, you may get sick anyway. In The Problem with Work, Kathi Weeks discusses how the category of the professional used to be more restrictive. If you were a doctor or lawyer whose life was not clearly distinguishable from your work, then you were a professional. Now, it seems that more and more workers are included in that category, with all of the burdens that this entails. Despite all of the negative emotion that may be simmering under the surface, you are expected to be calm and confident. It makes me wonder how alienated people may become from their true feelings if they are able to keep up this act for long enough. It no longer becomes an act. They change completely. From this angle, the professional is a hollowed out human being. It's sad.