Workers must undertake the emotional labour of producing a welcoming
performance (for example smiling) and, as the quotation above suggests, of
being exposed to and managing both customers and co-workers’ emotions,
which involves empathetic work. As previous studies suggest (Adib and
Guerrier, 2003; Bird et al., 2002; Novarra, 1980), this work is assumed to
correspond with feminine qualities. Women made up over 80 per cent of the
staff on the front desk. The men we spoke to who were working in this section
also stressed that they were able to bring similar innate qualities to the job.
Gabor, for example, described the importance of smiling, but did so using
what we might think of as a distancing technique: