Value of Resilience in Emotional Labor Work:

The use of empathy is highly desired with adjusters in property and casualty insurance organizations; those adjusters who can empathize with claimants are better able to maintain positive relationships between claimants and the organization. What these insurance organizations may not realize, however, is that there is a potential downside for the adjusters with the continued use of empathy in their emotional labor roles. Some adjusters excel in this type of work while others become drained and potentially leave. To examine these differences, resilience is considered. Like empathy, every adjuster has varying stores of resilience, which may help to buffer the possible negative effects of emotional labor work. Through a survey of the claims division of a midwestern P & C insurance company, there is some evidence to show that resilience does provide value for individuals and organizations where empathy is a job requirement.