As you probably know, Magic Johnson shocked the sports world last night when he abruptly, and with no notice to his boss or anyone in the organization, resigned as president of the Los Angeles Lakers.
In a clearly unscripted press conference, he lamented that he couldn’t really be himself as president of the Lakers, saying, "I want to go back to having fun,'' and "I want to go back to being who I was before taking on this job." He also noted that, "The fines and the tampering and the this and the that, I can't help young men who want me to help them, or I can't tweet out. Like Russell Westbrook, that was a great feat the other day. I couldn't even tweet it out to say, 'Hey, congratulations.' If I had did that, everyone would have said he's tampering. I don't like that. I like to be free."
Now, none of us will ever know the pressures or pleasures of being president of the Los Angeles Lakers. But virtually every person reading this article can empathize with Magic in one critical way; how painful it is when you feel like you can’t really be yourself, and you have to fake your emotions, at your job.
When Magic said, "I want to go back to being who I was before taking on this job," he’s speaking a truth that most, if not all, employees have felt at one time or another. And the pain of having to fake your emotions at work, of not being able to truly be yourself, is very real and backed by data.
I conducted a study called, “If You Have To Fake Your Emotions At Work, Research Shows You're Probably Going To Be Miserable.” Here’s what we did.
First, more than 5,000 people took the “Does Your Job Require High Or Low Emotional Intelligence?” test. One of the questions asks quiz-takers to rate the statement “I have to consciously 'act' or 'put on a show' to display appropriate emotions at work” with the choices Always, Frequently, Rarely or Never.
Second, we learned that 51% of people said that they Always or Frequently have to "act" or "put on a show." Right away we can see that a lot of people are having to exert real energy to force a smile or fake empathy or positivity at work. And over time, that’s bound to cause real fatigue and burn out.
Third, we made an even bigger discovery; that 51% who have to "put on a show" are 32% less likely to love their job. Or put another way, if you don't have to fake your emotions at work, you’re 32% more likely to love your job.
And not only will you be more likely to love your job, you’re also much less likely to have negative feelings about your job. People who don’t have to put on a show are 59% less likely to dislike or hate their job.
It can be utterly exhausting when you have to fake your emotions at work, when you feel like you can’t be who you really are. Magic spoke with ESPN’s Rachel Nichols immediately after the press conference. Rachel said to Magic “you look so happy right now…” and his response was “I am happy.”
Magic Johnson is empathic, charming and emotional. But being president of the Los Angeles Lakers required him to tamp down some of his effusiveness and empathy, and instead act in a more distant and calculating way. And the research shows that a situation like that can be very tough.
Another study showed that, in certain jobs, having higher emotional intelligence is actually correlated with lower job performance. In 2010, researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign conducted an exhaustive meta-analysis of every available study linking emotional intelligence to job performance. They analyzed 476 such studies, involving 191 distinct jobs, and discovered that the determining factor in whether emotional intelligence would be positively or negatively related to job performance was something called “emotional labor.”
Emotional labor is the extent to which we have to regulate and display certain emotions to achieve our goals. Let’s imagine that you’re someone who is incredibly empathic, who understands and shares the feelings of others. That should be a wonderful characteristic to have, right? Sure, but now imagine you are in a job that requires you to not express your empathy, that requires you to fire people and keep secrets. Further imagine that even though your job requires you to not display your natural empathy, there are people outside your job who criticize you for not being empathic enough! That sounds like a terrible situation.
Ironically, in a situation like that, the study showed that a person would probably be better off if they were less empathic and had lower emotional intelligence. Because in a job that requires being stone-faced, having a thick skin, and withstanding criticism, being less empathic could actually be a very good thing.
Imagine a turnaround executive who’s been hired to restructure a failing company by, among other things, conducting layoffs. That’s a tough job, and if that executive is someone who makes a deep emotional connection with every single affected employee, that executive is going to be emotionally (and physically) exhausted and pained every minute of the day.
While much of the sports world is absolutely stunned that Magic Johnson quit, I’m not. And anyone who knows how painful it is to have to fake your emotions at work probably isn’t stunned either.
