ABSTRACT
Interactive service job growth in the UK is significant.Analysis of labour within these
services has tended to focus on employee attitudes, framed through emotional
labour. Such analysis is not incorrect, just partial. Some employers also demand aesthetic
labour, or employees with particular embodied capacities and attributes that
appeal to the senses of customers. Reporting survey and focus group data, this article
explores aesthetic labour as it is experienced by interactive service employees
in the retail and hospitality industries. Issues examined are recruitment and selection;
image and appearance; uniforms and dress codes; skills and training. By extending
awareness of aesthetic labour so that both employee attitude and appearance
are empirically and conceptually revealed, the article extends understanding of the
job demands made of employees in interactive services.