The relationship between emotional labor and burnout in direct sales representatives – a pilot study

Special attention has been paid lately to the emotional component of the job, especially concerning “peoplework” jobs, such as health care, social services work, teaching or sales. On the other hand, affective outcomeshave been linked to burnout. Therefore, the current study seeks to investigate the extent to which emotional laborstrategies result in burnout for employees who work in direct sales. The study was conducted using a surveymethod of 107 bank tellers. The results confirmed the fact that expressing organizationally desired emotionswhile interacting with customers is emotionally taxing. Significant correlations were found not only concerningthe scores for emotional labor strategies and core burnout, but also between the respective subscales. The regression analysis indicated the intensity of emotions being regulated in service encounters as the best predictor forburnout in the case of the sample in discussion. Likewise, in a second model, the variety of emotions required inwork settings as part of the work role together with the intensity subscale account for approximately 20% of thevariance in burnout. Performance did not show the expected relationship with burnout and emotional labor. Thesefindings represent a basis for new antecedents on the implications of emotional labor in the Romanian workplace.