In a recent article for University Affairs, Loleen Berdahl and Christie Schultz discuss the need to acknowledge the emotional labour associated with academic work. Berdahl and Schultz write that emotional labour is different from other kinds of labour and must be recognized and calculated into workloads, performance metrics, and reward structures. The authors identify several challenges that surround emotional labour, such as this work being “invisible” or “unrecognized,” demanding in nature, and disproportionately allocated to women and racialized employees due to stereotypes about empathy and care. The authors advise institutions to apply a “care ethics” lens which recognizes the complexity of care-related work and the way that this work requires individual and institutional-level care for the self.
