Abstract
Semi-structured, in-depth interviews were conducted with nineteen commission paid retail workers from three levels of department stores as well as small business, nondepartment stores. Data from these interviews were used to examine emotional labor and stress in commission paid retail workers’ interactions with customers and co-workers. Participants were found to engage in emotional labor not only to benefit the store they were employed by, but to benefit themselves financially as their behavior in front of
customers influenced the sales they made. Commission pay gave employees control over
the emotional labor they chose to engage in, which led to a sense of job autonomy. While
all participants employed emotional labor in their interactions with customers, only eight
did so with co-workers. Participants experienced various forms of stress, the most
common being lack of customers in the store and the competition between co-workers for
customers. Employees from one level of store did not differ from employees in other
levels of stores in their feelings about particular issues. This study contributes to existing
literature on emotional labor and stress, while incorporating the influence of commission
pay.
