Emotional Labour in the Neoliberal University: The Standpoint of Female Academics in Norway with Experience of Sick Leave

Abstract

In this article, we show how female academics who have been on sick leave hide feelings of exhaustion, fear, and a lack of control and change these feelings into expressions of control and engagement when interacting with students and colleagues. We contend that these emotional efforts are a response to the emotional culture of the university in which vocation and commitment to teaching and research have become entangled with neoliberal management trends. Within this context, academic performance and student satisfaction are measured and evaluated. We use Hochschild’s theory of emotional labour and the literature on the emotional culture of universities under neoliberal management to illuminate how emotional labour takes place in neoliberal academia and argue that this type of work is gendered. Our findings contribute to the growing body of research on gendered emotional labour in the neoliberal academy and add to our understanding of how this form of management affects the emotional lives of those working there.