Emotional Labor: Putting the Service in Public Service: Putting the Service in Public Service

This inspiring book focuses on this centrality of emotional involvement and interpersonal skills in public service work. The authors weave a powerful narrative of stories from the trenches gleaned through interviews, focus groups, and survey data. They go beyond the veneer of service delivery to the real, live, person-to-person interactions that give meaning to public service.For anyone who has ever felt apathetic toward government work, the words of caseworkers, investigators, administrators, attorneys, correctional staff, and 9/11 call-takers all show the human dimension of bureaucratic work and underscore what it means to work "with feeling."

Sharon H. Mastracci is an assistant professor of public administration at the University of Illinois-Chicago.