RIDING THE EMOTIONAL ROLLER COASTER

Affective events theory, Customer Service – General, Job emotions and moods -general, but
specific to Lisa
Frequency & Distribution, Intensity, Gender
Louise Damiani’s work is an emotional roller coaster most days. The oncology nurse at
CentraState Healthcare System in Freehold Township, New Jersey, soars with joy as patients
beat their cancer into remission. Then there are the low points when one of her patients is given
grim news about his or her cancer. She also battles with the frustration of office politics. But
even after a long shift, Damiani doesn’t let her negative emotions surface until she gets into her
car and heads home. “You have to learn how to pick and choose and not bring that emotion up,”
Damiani advises.
Emotional Intelligence
“You say, ‘OK, I can deal with this. I can focus on the priority, and the priority is the patient.’ As
well as managing her own emotions, Damiani has mastered the skill of creating positive
emotions in others. She recently received an award in recognition of her extraordinary sensitivity
toward patients’ needs and concerns. For example, one of Damiani’s patients wanted to return to
her native Mexico but, with an advanced stage of cancer, such a journey wasn’t possible. Instead,
Damiani brought “Mexico” into a fiesta-type setting and inviting the patient’s family, friends,
and hospital staff to attend the special event.

Lisa Salvatore, a charge nurse at the recently built Leon S. Peters Burn Center in Fresno,
California, also recognizes that her job involves supporting patients’ emotional needs, not just
their physical problems. “With burns, you don’t just treat something on the outside,” she says.
“You treat something on the inside that you can’t see.” Salvatore also experiences the full range
of emotions, including the urgency of getting burn patients out of emergency within an hour to
improve their prospects of recovery. “I like high stress. I like trauma,” she says. Still, she
acknowledges the emotional challenges of treating children with burns. “I deal with it and then I
cry all the way home. I just sob on my way driving home.”
Anil Shandil, a medic from the 328th Combat Support Hospital in Fort Douglas, Utah, has
witnessed more severe burns and injuries than most medical professionals. For two years at the
Landstuhl Army Regional Medical Center in Germany, he aided soldiers who had been wounded
in Iraq or Afghanistan. The tour of duty was extremely emotionally taxing. “You get a lot of
severed limbs, a lot of traumatic brain injuries, a lot of death and dying,” says Shandil. “So the
compassion fatigue is rather high.” People who work closely with victims of trauma often suffer
compassion fatigue, also known as secondary traumatic stress disorder. The main symptom is a
decreasing ability to feel compassion for others. In spite of the risk of compassion fatigue,
Shandil has volunteered for an even more challenging assignment. He and 85 other soldiers in
the 328th are now in Iraq providing medical care for Iraqi detainees being held there by the U.S.
military. So, along with managing emotions from constant exposure to trauma cases, these
medics must also show respectful compassion to those who fought against American comrades.
Shandil knows it will be hard. “Yes, these are people who were not kind to us. But as a medic,
it’s our job to care for them, no matter if that is your friend or your enemy.”

Transcript

0:00
What are emotions, moods and emotions and moods? What are the importance of emotions,
moods and emotions and moods in the workplace.

0:10
At the end of the lesson you're expected to understand and describe moods, emotions and moods
and emotions, describe emotional labor and describe emotional intelligence.

0:22
Emotion is the expression of a strong human feeling. Emotions are normally associated with
specific events or occurrences, and may be so intense to disrupt human thought process.
0:36
There are six basic emotions, happiness, sadness, surprise, fear, disgust, and anger.

0:50
Negative or undesirable emotions at work can be formed by work overload, lack of rewards in
unhappy social relations. Unhappy social relations are the most stressful work related factor.

1:07
Emotions in the workplace play a big role on how an entire organization communicates itself to
the outside world. events at work have a real emotional impact on participants. The
consequences of emotional states in the workplace are significant individuals, groups and
society, it is crucial to create a publicly observable and desirable emotional display. In an
organization. A mood is a feeling or a person's specific state of mind at any particular time. In
contrast, emotions, moods are less intense, and less likely to be provoked by a particular stimulus
or event. There are positive moods and negative moods.

1:58
Examples of positive moods are cheerful, reflective, humorous, whimsical, romantic,

2:08
negative moods or bitterness, melancholy, gloomy.

2:15
Any kind of bad mood can hinder a person's job performance and lead to poor decisions that
affect the company. A positive mood can enhance creativity and problem solving. However, we
must be careful because positive moods can also create false optimism and can cause mistakes in
decision making.

2:38
Emotions and moods are a subtle way of thinking or feeling about someone or something.
Typically, emotions and moods are reflected in a person's behavior.
2:48
emotions and moods can be beneficial or dangerous to the workplace, because it can easily
spread to those closest to the employee and affect everyone's performance. Emotions and moods
are caused by an individual and external stimuli. And therefore, everyone is in a position to
improve workplace attitude. Most especially managers, a manager may be able to influence an
employee's attitude. If the root cause relates to work conditions or work environment.

3:21
Emotions could be generally defined as a way a person responds to his or her environment, either
positively or negatively. Work Environment can affect a person's emotions & moods. Emotions
and moods may affect both the employee's work performance and the performance of workers.

Emotional labor is the process of managing feelings and expressions to fulfill the emotional
requirement of a job. It is described as the way a person manages his or her emotions. Emotions
of employees are regulated by the organization in order to shape their state of mind. Workers are
expected to regulate their emotions during interactions with customers, co workers and superiors

4:31
in emotional intelligence or AI is the ability to understand and manage your own emotions and
those of the people around you people with a high degree of emotional intelligence, know what
they're feeling, what their emotions mean, and how these emotions can affect other people.

4:52
Emotional Intelligence also called Emotional leadership, emotional quotient and emotional
intelligence.

5:00
quotient is the capability of individuals to recognize their own emotions and those of others, they
are able to discern between different feelings. They can manage or adjust emotions, to adapt to
environments and achieve goals.
5:16
Emotional Intelligence requires five qualities. The five components provide a roadmap for the
identification, sharing and management of emotions in organizations. Self awareness, emotional
intelligence, people can understand what they are feeling at any moment in time. They know
how their behavior may impact others. Motivation. emotionally intelligent people are persistent,
and have positive emotions and moods and very clearly defined goals. Instead of feeling
defeated, they expect to overcome obstacles. self-regulated, they're able to read situations
accurately, they develop patterns to respond to life's emotional challenges.

6:07
Social skills, humans are social animals. As a network of humans, people must have social skills
that will allow them to work collectively towards goals. emotionally intelligent people have
qualities such as leadership, and effective communication. Empathy. Empathy is the ability to
place oneself in the shoes of another. Being considerate and caring is an important social and
moral barometer.

6:39
Having bad emotional intelligence means that the person is lacking in one or more of these five
areas. Think of it how can someone have self-awareness if the person cannot control the
expression of a feeling? And what is the value of being a motivated person? If a person does not
listen to others, and think that their opinions are irrelevant, that emotional intelligence will most
likely cause friction and misunderstanding.

7:13
Employees moods, emotions and overall dispositions have an impact on job performance,
decision making, creativity, teamwork, negotiations, and leadership, feelings drive performance.

7:31
That ends today's lesson, kindly visit our Google Classroom to access the classwork. If you have
any questions, just type it in the comment box. Thank you and have a nice day.
PPT Content:

Rohini – Slide 1 to 7

Slide 1:

Hello all, Today - Let’s ride on the emotional rollercoaster with Ayush, Himani, Kiran, RItu, Rohini &
Sahil.

Slide 2:

Emotions & Moods:

Affect is a broad range of both emotions and moods that people experience.

 Emotions are intense feelings that are directed at someone or something. They are usually short
lived and caused by a specific event, and accompanied by distinct facial expressions.

 Moods are feelings that tend to be less intense than emotions and that often lack a contextual
stimulus. Their cause is general & unclear. They are usually long-lasting and are not accompanied
by distinct expressions.

Slide 3:

6 Universal emotions are: …

Slide 4,5,6:

Emotions in the case:

She gets frustrated because of Office politics.

All 3 nurses and medics showed compassion towards their patients.

Louise felt low while giving a bad news to her patients, whereas Lisa sobbed all her way home after
treating kids with burns.

Lisa’s job, which involves supporting patient’s emotional needs can be emotionally taxing. Anil Shandil
was also emotionally drained after going on tour of duty.

Lisa feels a sense of urgency to get the patients out of Emergency at the earliest.
Slide 7:

Moods can be classified into negative and positive affect. They can further classified into:

High Positive Affect, Low positive affect, High negative affect, low negative affect.

We could identify the following moods in our case:

Lisa likes to be involved in high stress & high trauma situations.

Louise received an award for her extraordinary sensitivity towards her patient’s concerns & needs.

The case also talks about how people who work closely with victims of trauma often suffer secondary
traumatic stress disorder.

Slide 8 - Sahil

Aspects of Emotions: These are the 5 aspects of emotions, of which we are able to relate 4 of these.

Biology of Emotions – Emotions biologically originate in the brain’s limbic system. Research suggests
that most women have more active limbic systems which means they experience higher negative
emotions than men who have relatively inactive limbic system. We can see this in the case where Louise
and Lisa both experience a full range of emotions including ones that are negative.

Intensity – Jobs make different demands on our emotions. Medics and nurses like Lisa, Louise & Anil are
expected to be calm and controlled, even in stressful situation.

Rationality – Emotions make people think & take rational decisions. In the case, Anil takes a rational
approach towards treating both enemies & comrades.

Frequency & Duration – Medics & nurses often have shifts of long hours and takes a toll on their
emotions & moods.

Slide 9: Ritu

These are the following sources of emotions & moods –

Stress – Stress is a huge factor that leads to various emotions & moods. Medics, nurses and healthcare
workers experience stressful events on a day to day basis such as treating and attending to patients and
their emotional needs. This also leads to compassion fatigue.

Social Activities – Social activities also play a massive role in altering a person’s emotions & moods.
Louise cheered up one of her patients by inviting friends, family and hospital staff in a Mexican fiesta
style setting.

Gender – According to research, women show greater emotional expression than men; they experience
emotions more intensely; and they display more frequent expressions of both positive and negative
emotions. Louise and Lisa both experience a full range of emotions like extreme level of sadness, trauma
and stress.

Slide 10, 11: Ayush

There are 2 External Constraints on Emotions:

Organisational influence & cultural influence.

Emotions could be generally defined as a way a person responds to his or her environment, either
positively or negatively. Work Environment can affect a person's emotions & moods. Emotions and
moods may affect both the employee's work performance and the performance of workers.

This can be related with the affective events theory which explains that:

Workplace events cause emotional reactions on the part of employees, which then influence workplace
attitudes and behaviours.

In this case, we see that the job can be quite emotionally taxing, and requires emotional labour which will
be shortly explained. Their day to day work includes ups and downs where they have to break a good or
bad news to their patients, and deal with patients & their emotional needs. This causes various positive &
negative emotions among medics & nurses, ranging from joy to stress & trauma.
Slide 12: Ayush

Emotional labour is the process of managing feelings and expressions to fulfil the emotional requirement
of a job. It is described as the way a person manages his or her emotions.

Felt emotions - An individual’s actual emotions.

Displayed emotions - Emotions that are organizationally required and considered appropriate in a given
job.

Surface acting - Hiding one’s inner feelings and forging emotional expressions in response to display
rules.

Deep acting - Trying to modify one’s true inner feelings based on display rules

Emotional dissonance - Inconsistencies between the emotions we feel and the emotions we project.

We see that Louise doesn’t let her negative emotions surface before her patients & until she heads home.
She says, “You have to learn how to pick and choose and not bring that emotion up.”

Slide 13: Himani

Emotional Intelligence requires five qualities. The five components provide a roadmap for the
identification, sharing and management of emotions in organizations.

Self awareness - People can understand what they are feeling at any moment in time. They know how
their behavior may impact others. We see that Lisa recognizes how it’s important to cater to patients
personal needs apart from their physical demands.

Motivation - Emotionally intelligent people are persistent, and have positive emotions and moods and
very clearly defined goals. Instead of feeling defeated, they expect to overcome obstacles. Lisa deals with
emotional challenges and motivates herself to get back up and work hard the next day.

Self-management/ regulation - People are able to read situations accurately, manage and develop patterns
to respond to life's emotional challenges. Anil manages to motivate himself to care for both friends &
enemies alike. Louise advises others on managing their emotions and explains how it’s important to pick
& choose emotions before their patients.

Social skills - the ability to handle the emotions of others. By managing her own emotions, Louise has
mastered the skill of creating positive emotions in others.
Empathy - It is the ability to place oneself in the shoes of another. Being considerate and caring is an
important social and moral barometer. We see how Lisa recognizes that her job involves supporting
patients’ emotional needs, not just their physical problems.

Slide 14: Kiran

Applications of Emotions & Moods: These are the general applications, of which we could relate the case
with the following:

Decision Making – Emotions are an important part of the decision making process in the organisation.

Leadership – Effective leaders rely on emotional appeals to help convey their messages.

An example of both decision making and good leadership is - Anil, who despite the risk of
compassion fatigue, volunteered for an even more challenging assignment.

Creativity – Positive moods increase creativity in the workplace. Louise helped cheer up one of her
patients by being creative and organising a Mexican fiesta style setting.

Motivation – Emotional commitment to work & high motivation are strongly linked.

Customer service – Emotion affects service quality delivered to customers which in turn affects customer
relationships. In addition, employees’ emotions may also transfer to the customer. This is referred to as,
emotional contagion. By being positive herself, Louise has mastered the art of spreading positivity in
others.

Job Attitudes - Though it may be hard to “never take your work home with you”, for most people, a
negative mood resulting from a bad day at work carries over to the next day. Since Lisa went home
sobbing that day, she carried her negative emotions home which could have affected her attitude to her
job the next day.

Thank You.