She Called Us Useless. Three Weeks Later, She Thanked Us.
What
one Australian visa case taught me about the real cost and value of staying
calm for a living
By Rasiah Keerthana | MBA
Batch 37 | Jul 2026
“The calm voice on the call
is rarely the whole story.” Source:
[Vitaly Gariev], Pexels (2026).
A
client applying for her daughter's Australian student visa wanted us to call
immigration directly and speed up the decision, something no agency can
actually do. She was angry, openly doubted our competence, and some of my
staff took the brunt of it in words far from professional. We stayed calm,
understanding the process well enough to know that getting defensive would only
escalate things. Three weeks later, the visa was granted. She apologized and
returned to process her son's visa with us as well.
That
calm has a name. Hochschild (1983) called it emotional labor, managing
your own feelings to produce the composed display a job requires, regardless of
what you feel underneath. Himanthi and Arachchige (2014),
studying Sri Lankan bank tellers, and Apsara and Arachchige (2016),
studying senior teachers in Colombo, both found this kind of surface acting
linked to lower job satisfaction over time, even when the interaction itself
ends well. The pattern is not unique to visa consulting; the same
surface-acting cost shows up in banking, teaching, and virtually anywhere
composure is part of the job description, suggesting this is structural to
client-facing work generally, not a quirk of our industry.
“Different uniform, same
quiet cost, composure is a job requirement nobody put in writing.” Source: [Jessica Olivella], Pexels
(2026).
But
is emotional labor only a cost to manage, or also a capability firms should
value? Using Barney's (1991) resource-based view, a team that can
absorb sustained hostility calmly and still close the case is genuinely VRIO: valuable
to client retention, relatively rare among untrained staff, hard for
competitors to imitate quickly, and organized around how deliberately we reward
it. Seen this way, my staff's composure was not just endurance; it was a
competitive asset that protected a client relationship worth two visa
applications. Yet the theory has a limit: Hochschild's original framing assumed
surface acting quietly erodes wellbeing regardless of outcome, while our case
succeeded and staff stayed motivated. The uncomfortable question is whether
that motivation held because the outcome was good, or because we deliberately
rewarded and recognized the team afterward, which would mean the resource is
not resilience itself, but the recognition system protecting it.
“Recognition doesn't undo a
hard day, but it makes the next one easier to walk into.” Source: [Rasiah Keerthana (2025). Personal
photograph. Asia Pacific Group, Colombo, Sri Lanka.
The
real HR implication: treating emotional labor as a VRIO resource means
investing in it deliberately, rotating staff off high-conflict accounts before
burnout sets in, and building recognition into the process rather than after a
crisis. Otherwise, we are betting every difficult client ends the way this one
did.
So here's my question to
you: is your team's composure under pressure something you're actively
protecting as a resource, or just something you're quietly relying on?
References
Apsara, P.H. and Arachchige, B.J.H. (2016) 'The relationship between emotional labour and job satisfaction: a study of senior teachers in selected international schools in Colombo district, Sri Lanka', Human Resource Management Journal, 4(1).
Barney, J. (1991) 'Firm resources and sustained competitive advantage', Journal of Management, 17(1), pp. 99–120.
Cowan, L. (2019) Emotional labour is a heavier burden for some of us. [Video]. TEDxRoyalCentralSchool. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Db074Wfmzqs (Accessed: 10 July 2026).
Himanthi, P.W.U. and Arachchige, B.J.H. (2014) 'Emotional labour and job satisfaction: a case study on bank tellers in Sri Lanka', Human Resource Management Journal, 2(2), pp. 28–36.
Hochschild, A.R. (1983) The managed heart: commercialization of human feeling. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Johnson, A. and Nguyen, H. (2015) Research highlights: managing emotional labour. [Video]. YouTube. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q2KoBk8cBs0 (Accessed: 15 July 2026).
A compelling and relatable read. I agree that emotional labour is a valuable capability in client-facing roles and deserves greater recognition. At the same time, organizations should be careful not to rely solely on employees' resilience without ongoing support and wellbeing initiatives, even the most composed teams can experience burnout over time.
ReplyDeleteThank you, I agree, and I did add that recognition alone doesn't prevent burnout either. If emotional labor isn't actually counted when setting workload or targets, support programs end up treating the symptoms while the underlying demand on people stays the same. Real support probably means adjusting what's asked of people, not just adding wellbeing initiatives on top.
DeletePowerful story demonstrating how listening, empathy, and responsive leadership can transform negative experiences into trust, loyalty, and lasting organizational improvement.
ReplyDeleteThank you. I agree that listening and empathy set the tone, but I did say the transformation only happens if something actually changes afterward. Responding warmly in the moment builds goodwill, but trust comes from what leadership does differently once the conversation is over. Without that follow-through, empathy alone can start to feel like just a good reaction.
DeleteThis is a relevant discussion for customer facing roles. Organisations need to balance client satisfaction with employee wellbeing because long term service quality depends on healthy and motivated employees.
ReplyDeleteThank you, I agree with the balance you're describing, though in practice it often isn't much of a balance at all. When client demands go up, employee well-being is usually the first thing quietly sacrificed, not weighed equally against it. So the real shift needed is treating employee capacity as a real limit, not something that can always stretch a little further.
DeleteA very insightful example of emotional labor in client-facing roles. I particularly liked the connection between employee composure and the VRIO framework. The key HR lesson is that emotional resilience should not simply be expected from employees—it should be supported through recognition, training, and proper workload management. Great practical connection between theory and workplace experience.
ReplyDeleteThank you; glad the VRIO connection landed, since that's really the point: if composure is a valuable resource, it has to be protected, not just expected for free. Training and recognition help, but they don't mean much if workload keeps demanding the same emotional effort without any adjustment. The resource stays valuable only as long as it's actually managed, not just praised.
Delete