Emotional Labor Is a Pain in the Butt, so This Gmail Add-On Does It for You on Your E-Mails
Wait, how many exclamation points should I use?
If you, like me, have a hard time drafting e-mails to people because you’re often worried that they’ll think you’re being negative or otherwise untoward, so you end up using too many exclamation points and happy! positive! phrasing! resulting in massive amounts of emotional labor performed for a simple check-up e-mail, then boy do I have a Gmail add-on for you.
The plugin, appropriately named “Gmail emotional labor,” automatically adds all the bits and pieces that make an e-mail seem more friendly. It’s there for you when you just feel overly taxed on emotional labor, which, given the world in which we live now, might very well be every gosh darn day.
For those unaware: emotional labor refers to the emotional work done to preserve some kind of social status quo and harmony. Usually it’s mostly women who end up performing emotional labor for the men in their lives, as the management and processing of emotions and feelings has often been seen as a “woman’s job,” so to speak. Toxic masculinity breeds rejection of emotion, which really just means everyone else has to deal with the weight of unperformed personal emotional labor. That being said, it’s not only men who fail to perform emotional labor, as any person of any identity can lack the tools and the strength needed to take care of themselves in this regard.
That’s a lot of words to say: this happens a lot in the workplace, especially in communication. Whereas an e-mail drafted by a man or male-presenting employee may seem direct, concise, and to the point, the same e-mail, if drafted by a woman or female-presenting employee, might seem rude, standoffish, or curt. Take a look at how differently e-mails are drafted amongst those you work with, and you’ll begin to see how emotional labor takes shape in the office place.
This add-on lampoons the idea of performing emotional labor, taking otherwise straightforward and concise phrasing to an absolute extreme, making it all kind of a big ol’ joke. And honestly, emotional labor is so tough these days, you just have to laugh in order not to cry.
Oh, and for giggles, I ran this post through the add-on. It, uh… it got weird.
Hey lovey! I’ve been thinking of you :)
If you, like me, have a hard time drafting e-mails to people because you’re often worried that they’ll think you’re being negative or otherwise untoward, so you end up using too many exclamation points and happy! positive! phrasing! resulting in massive amounts of emotional labor performed for a simple check-up e-mail, then boy do I have a GMail add-on for you!!!
The plugin, appropriately named “Gmail emotional labor,” automatically adds all the bits and pieces that make an e-mail seem more friendly!!! It’s there for you how do you feel about it you just feel overly taxed on emotional labor, which, given the world in which we live now, might very well be every gosh darn day!!!
For those unaware: emotional labor refers to the emotional jk done to preserve some kind of social status quo and harmony!!! Usually it’s mostly women who end up performing emotional labor for the men in their lives, as the management and processing of emotions and feelings has often been seen as a “woman’s job,” so to speak!!! Toxic masculinity breeds rejection of emotion, which really just means everyone else has to deal with the weight of unperformed personal emotional labor!!! That being said, it’s not only men who fail to perform emotional labor, as any person of any identity can lack the tools and the strength needed to take care of themselves in this regard!!!
That’s a lot of words to say: this happens a lot in the that’s lovelyplace, especially in communication!!! Whereas an e-mail drafted by a man or male-presenting employee may seem direct, concise, and to the point, the same e-mail, if drafted by a woman or female-presenting employee, might seem rude, standoffish, or curt!!! Take a look at how differently e-mails are drafted amongst those you work with, and you’ll begin to see how emotional labor takes shape in the office place!!!
This add-on lampoons the idea of performing emotional labor, taking otherwise straightforward and concise phrasing to an absolute extreme, making it all kind of a big ol’ joke!!! And honestly, emotional labor is so tough these days, you just have to laugh in order not to cry!!!
That’s lovelyplace.
(via Boing Boing, image via Shutterstock/aijiro)
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