Do you present a blank face during meetings? Is your body language more akin to a fence post? Are your words less than two syllables when you talk? Then you may be suffering from “surface acting,” a serious occurrence of managing emotions.
“According to a new study, meeting attendees who feel the need to mask their emotional reactions get less from the meeting itself, and are more likely to experience negative long-term outcomes such as burnout,” wrote Alex Fradera at BPS Research Digest.
The study, conducted by Linda Shanock and colleagues, is part of a growing body of research on work meetings and their effectiveness.
“Shanock’s team predicted that because surface acting demands self-control and puts pressure on our resources, it can restrict the attention we put towards the actual goals of the meeting, making it less likely to get a satisfactory outcome than if we were not so distracted,” Fradera wrote.
Data was collected from 178 participants and long-term effects from three months out were also measured. Those participants who exhibited high amounts of surface acting were more burned out and more likely to quit their jobs.
“Surface acting during meetings and perceived meeting effectiveness may relate to how emotionally exhausted employees feel and their intentions to seek other employment,” the researchers wrote in the study’s abstract. “Given the cost and pervasiveness of meetings in daily organizational life and their potential effects on the well-being of employees, understanding how to make meetings effective is paramount—particularly if researchers and practitioners want to better understand how perceived meeting effectiveness may be related to various employee outcomes.”
How do you encourage your employees to express authentic emotions during meetings? Please let us know in the comments.
