The Experience of Emotion in the Workplace

Emotion in the workplace has increasingly become an issue of importance to organizational and management scholars. This article takes a very personal look at emotion in the workplace. Using autoethnographic and interview methods, the experience of teaching in the days following the Texas A&M University “bonfire” collapse in November of 1999 is examined. The lens of emotional labor is placed on this event by considering the intense experience of emotions and the struggle to balance emotional needs of students with the need to cover course material. Scholarship in the areas of emotion, identification, and community are drawn on in the consideration of lessons learned from this experience.