"We bring them to life”: service robots and emotional labor among frontline employees in the service sector

The aim of this study is to enhance understanding of how social robots affect the emotional labour of frontline employees in the service sector. It employs a qualitative case study approach, using semi-structured interviews, observations, and document analysis. The study participants include frontline employees, managers, and HR officers at an amusement park in Sweden. Our findings demonstrate that the introduction of robots changed the conditions for emotional labour by facilitating work in some cases, complicating it in others, and in some instances fundamentally transforming it. A key finding is the increased theatricalisation of labour, whereby frontline employees bring robots to life through performance and role-playing. This behaviour was shaped by overarching organizational expectations rather than direct managerial instructions. The robots also shifted the balance between onstage and backstage roles, as employees spent more time performing in customer-facing roles and less time recovering backstage. This study contributes to the development of emotional labour theory by cross-fertilizing it with Goffman’s dramaturgical perspective, which adds dimensions related to self-presentation and the adaptation of emotions and behaviour. By focusing on employees with experience working alongside robots, the study offers new insights into how robots reshape the emotional and social interactions of frontline service work.