An emotional exit: An interpretative phenomenological analysis of the drivers for leaving and mental health of ex police officers

This article explores the emotional labour of ex England and Wales police officers and charts the impact upon their mental health and pathways to leaving their roles. Utilising Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis this paper focuses on the unrestricted voice of officers who have left the service and are no longer bound by the ‘feeling and display rules’ of their profession, thereby offering a unique perspective not often captured by work and stress research. Phenomenological interviews were conducted with seven ex-police officers. Four key drivers for leaving (Consequences and Trust, Self-Sacrifice and Worthlessness, Relationship Breakdown, and Dissociation and Depersonalisation – a culture) intersect as powerful detrimental narratives, illustrating damaging organisational expectations of emotional suppression leading to avoidant coping and emotional alienation, with officers expressing a range of dissociative behaviours. Organisational policy and procedures, and the attitude of senior officers and supervisors send clear signals that emotional expression is a weakness. Implications for theory and practice are illuminated and the paper provides a mapping that illustrates numerous examples of damaging organisational expectations about emotional suppression that accumulate over time and impact individual and organisational consequences.