Känslor på kvinnojouren : Jourkvinnors upplevda känslor i möten med våldsutsatta kvinnor

Sammanfattning: The aim of this study was through theories of emotional labor; understand how staff and volunteers within women’s shelter handled their emotions in the encounters with battered women. To examine this we used a qualitative method and interviewed four staff members and three volunteers spread across four different women’s shelters. The data collected was analyzed using Hochschilds’ theory of emotional labor. The results show that the most common feelings within the women’s shelters were feelings of friendship, happiness, sadness and frustration. The results also show that the staff and volunteers needed to manage their emotion due to the inappropriateness of some feelings. The feelings that needed managing were primarily feelings of sadness, frustration and shock. To manage their emotion the staff and volunteers of the women’s shelters used both surface acting and deep acting. The surface acting used was that staff and volunteers hid the feelings that were considered inappropriate. The deep acting used was method acting, working experience, life experience and the staff and volunteers also managed their emotions by talking to fellow staff and their loved ones.