Performing the ‘Ideal Professional’

This chapter explores expectations of ‘ideal professionals’ in contemporary workplaces using the lens of emotional labor. From in-depth interviews with human resource professionals, we examine experiences of performing emotional labor and the ways in which emotional displays are driven by expectations to be a ‘professional’. Our findings demonstrate that norms of emotionality have been layered on to traditional norms of rationality for these professionals. However, in contrast to discourses about displaying authentic selves/emotions at work, we find that required displays are quite restrictive and at times conflicting. The contribution of this research is twofold (i) to make visible the labor in producing appropriate displays of emotion and identity at work and (ii) to highlight changing norms for the ‘ideal professional’ in contemporary workplaces.