Emotional labour: More of a burden than a benefit?

Hospitality workers, such as flight attendants and waiters, are expected to be courteous, friendly, and polite all the time. Training and managing their own feelings is part of the job. For many, people's true feelings differ from those shown to the outside world, thus prompting them to "put a mask on" throughout their working hours. This practice is called surface acting, which is as essential to this investigation as deep acting. In this context, this study's results were thought-provoking since a statistically significant positive correlation between deep acting and performance was found, while the surface acting–performance relationship was negative. These findings may serve as a warning signal for employers who are expected to keep their employees' mental well-being intact at work.