‘You get a completely different feeling’–an empirical exploration of emotions and their functions in digital frontline work

Abstract

In this study of how counsellors in the Norwegian Labour and Welfare Administration (NAV) experience digital frontline work, most informants agreed that digital interaction with clients produces a ‘different feeling’–but what is this feeling? Based on interviews with frontline workers, the study unpacks this ‘different feeling’ as a form of alienation that occurs when digital interaction causes information to fragment, leaving counsellors working on segments of a case rather than ‘the entire client’. The study findings indicate that emotions can influence the use of digital technologies and, conversely, that digital information can influence emotions in face-to-face interactions. Drawing a parallel between the literatures on emotional labour and street-level bureaucracies, emotions can create work pressures that frontline workers must cope with. However, the present findings show that emotions are not always a source of pressure, and that both emotions and their absence can create pressure at work. Digital interaction offers new forms of emotional support, and workers can use emotions to establish connections as potential resources in digital work.