Dana Cetojevic

Listening Essay

RELATIONSHIPS

In this listening essay I would like to acknowledge the concept of relationships. As I’ve started to grow up and develop my communication skills, the concept of communication strongly stems from the idea of relationships. The complexity of relationships fundamental to our progression within any circumstance that we are in.

From developing communication and building relationships, it is then that we can begin to acknowledge and listen to stories. The idea of listening can be one of the most challenging practices are young professional will ever have to practice.

The “art of listening” is critical to the way stories work.

I don’t particularly think that the art of listening is a easy practice. I believe that it is a practice that can take one’s whole life to learn. However I do believe that being able to grasp the skill and to acknowledge its power earlier than later will contribute to a successful story. Listening to stories and externalising conversations will create value to relationships.

Whilst in class I remember observing this particular lecture slide and quote that was stated by Maggie Carey & Shona Russell:

“Remembering practices are based on the poststructuralist understanding that our identities are forged through our relationships with other people.  Our lives have membership and this membership influences our experience of ourselves. How others see us, how we experience ourselves with others, how we participate with others, all influence who we are becoming as people.”

CHALLENGING SITUATIONS

Lastly I would like to acknowledge the concept of challenging situations Within a professional environment. Emotional labour and moral moments. As a junior in the industry and work force myself, this has always been a very challenging notion for me personally.

From my understanding, emotional labor is the process of managing feelings and expressions to fulfill the emotional requirements of a job. More specifically, workers are expected to regulate their emotions during interactions with customers, co-workers and managers.

Morris and Feldman suggest that emotional labor can be best conceptualized in terms of four distinct dimensions. 

Morris and Feldman (1996) –“frequency of appropriate emotional display, attentiveness to required display rules, variety of emotions to be displayed, and emotional dissonance”

In several roles and Industries that I’ve been a part of throughout my career, this concept of emotional labour has been one of the most challenging concept I’ve had to manage. I worked in retail for four years and I had several incidents of challenging customer interaction.

I have come up with three epiphanies of my own as to why I believe these conflicts occur. In my experience, these epiphanies are my own beliefs and understanding of why these underlying issues occur to workers in relation to emotional labour.

1. Customers think of the employee as a personification of the company and they have some issue with the company.
2. Customers think they are entitled because “the customer is always right,” and they consider bullying employees to be one of the things they’ve “bought” by patronising the store.
3. Individuals have other stuff going on in their life and they are taking out their anger on the employee. Anger is EXTREMELY empowering, and some people act aggressively and pick fights to blow off steam. The employee just happens to be a bit of a punching bag..

VIDEO/TRANSCRIPT

BIBLIOGRAPHY

• Morris, J. A., & Feldman, D. C. (1996). The dimensions, antecedents, and consequences of emotional labor. The Academy of Management Review, 21(4), 986–1010.
• Hugh Fox, quoted in Maggie Carey & Shona Russell Outsider Witness: Some Answers to Commonly Answered Questions: “The “art of listening” is critical to the way stories work”
• Maggie Carey & Shona Russell, Re-membering: commonly asked questions: “Remembering practices are based on the poststructuralist understanding that our identities are forged through our relationships with other people.  Our lives have membership and this membership influences our experience of ourselves. How others see us, how we experience ourselves with others, how we participate with others, all influence who we are becoming as people.”