When work takes over: Emotional labor strategies and daily ruminations about work while at home

This study investigates whether two specific strategies of emotional labor (surface and deep acting) shown during client interactions are associated with work-related intrusions on thoughts outside of work. N = 157 bank employees provided reports of emotional labor and of work-related rumination at home on five consecutive workdays. Converging with expectations, we found that on days when surface acting was used, participants reported higher rumination. In contrast, deep acting had no significant association with work-related ruminations at home.