Emotional Labor in the Field of Low-Threshold Drug Work: Meaning and Design of Emotion Regulation in Escalative Interaction Processes with the Facility Clientele

This paper is concerned with emotional labor in the context of low-threshold drug work. First, the emotion regulation model according to Alicia Grandey is presented, in order to transfer it to the field of low-threshold drug work. Two practical case studies illustrate these theoretical explanations. That makes clear that both the clientele and the employees in the facilities of low-threshold drug work have to do emotional labor and face many adversities. Among other things, the clients have to cope with trauma and its consequences or the influence of psychoactive substances, while the employees have to fulfill the emotional requirements (display rules) of the organization and often show excessive reactions due to the permanent confrontation with suffering and misery. The resulting communicative and emotional dysbalance must be configured over and over again by both parties through emotional labor in order to be able to communicate with each other safely and successfully.