Everyone can relate: Negative emotions such as anger, disappointment or exhaustion can come up at work just as much as anywhere else. However, we often feel compelled to suppress these negative feelings. Especially towards customers, clients or patients, a friendly attitude is part of the work requirement. For example, we put on a smile even though we’re angry inside. But also in our interactions with colleagues and superiors, we regularly find ourselves in situations where we have to control our emotions.
This kind of emotion regulation to meet the demands of work is also called emotional labor. The problem is that emotional labor can have negative consequences for mental health. This is because when the actual emotion experienced and the emotion shown to the outside world contradict each other, this creates a state of tension. If this contradiction is experienced frequently, it can lead to increased stress or even burnout. It’s therefore better to influence the actual emotion experienced in such a way that it actually corresponds to the emotion presented externally. This has been shown to reduce the experience of dissonance, tension, and stress.
Strategies for healthy emotion regulation
In order to achieve consistency in your emotions, you should first reflect on the situations in which you tend to hide your emotions. Then practice how you can better regulate your emotions. The following strategies have proven helpful in achieving this:
- Cognitive reinterpretation: This strategy involves re-evaluating the situation and putting it into a new context. For example, if you’re angry about a colleague’s mistake, it can help to think that mistakes happen to everyone and that the person usually does a good job. Another example: If you are annoyed because a colleague asks a lot of questions, you can remind yourself that this person values your skills and trusts you enough to ask you questions.
- Changing perspective: The deliberate attempt to take on the perspective of the other person often creates more understanding for a difficult situation and thus reduces tension. On the one hand, this makes it possible to understand the background to the problematic situation. On the other hand, you can find solutions more easily.
- Relaxation: Relaxation techniques are very helpful in dealing with negative feelings or even preventing them by keeping general tension as low as possible. These include progressive muscle relaxation, autogenic training, and meditation. You can use the technique of your choice specifically in difficult situations. However, you will get the best results if you practice them regularly.
- Talking to colleagues: Share your experiences with particularly emotional situations with others. This is a crucial step in emotional processing. Through sharing, you will often realize that other colleagues are experiencing similar emotions. In addition, you can learn from others how they deal with the situation.
If you use these strategies for regulating your emotions regularly and consciously, you will be able to manage your emotions in a healthy way, thereby reducing tension and positively affecting your mental health.
You can find further information on this topic here:
Ackerman, C. E. (2025, 20. November). Kognitive Umstrukturierung: Die Kraft der Umstrukturierung von Gedanken. PositivePsychology.com. https://positivepsychology.com/de/kognitive-verhaltenstherapie-kognitive-umstrukturierung-kognitive-verzerrungen/
Grandey, A. A. (2000). Emotional regulation in the workplace: A new way to conceptualize emotional labor. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, 5(1), 95–110. https://doi.org/10.1037/1076-8998.5.1.95
Gross, J. J., & John, O. P. (2003). Individual differences in two emotion regulation processes: Implications for affect, relationships, and well-being. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 85(2), 348–362. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.85.2.348