Emotional demands of some types of museum work are ‘growing in intensity’

Workers in museums and heritage sites experience a range of emotional impacts that appear “distinctive from other sectors”, a new research report has found.

The Kings College London (KCL) Futures of Care report found that emotion is becoming more embedded in some types of museum work, particularly public-facing roles, and that there is a perception that the emotional demands of this type of work are “growing in intensity”.

Published earlier this month, the report explores how UK museum workers articulate, experience and utilise emotions in their professional lives.

It is an area that has received little scholarly attention up to now, as research in this area tends to focus on the emotional experience of museum visitors and other users.

Led by Jennie Morgan of the University of Stirling and Anna Woodham of KCL, the research project aimed to understand if emotions are becoming more integral to museum work as cultural heritage institutions increasingly operate in contexts of urgent change and move towards socially engaged practice.

The research team ran a series of collaborative and networking activities, including two workshops for museum and heritage professionals, academic researchers, and policymakers, which focused on the emotions used and experienced in museum work.

The research considered three interlinked questions:

Q1: Do museum workers perceive emotions to be integral to what they do? How do they discuss emotions in the context of their work? What spectrum of emotions arise?

Q2: How are emotions experienced and used across different areas of practice? Are emotions more prevalent in some roles and organisations than others – and if so, why?

Q3: What are the implications of acknowledging emotions in museum work for future research and sector support?

The report found that museum and heritage work has an emotional ambiguity, with a wide range of emotions co-existing simultaneously.

Participants reported that their work inspired negative emotions like stress, anxiety, burnout and frustration alongside more positive emotions including excitement, delight, inspiration, joy, passion and, particularly, hope.

Participants said they felt conflicting emotions about their position in the workforce, with many saying they felt fortunate and grateful to be in the sector while also experiencing a sense of guilt that their role meant they “hold a certain amount of privilege”.

Participants also cited slippage of emotions between different contexts including work and homelife, with some saying they found it difficult to recognise if emotions are personal or organisational.

The research found that there is a consensus that roles involving work with the public can be "especially emotionally demanding".

One participant described how, in the past, visitor assistant job descriptions focused on security tasks whereas “now those same roles often do the emotional heavy lifting, facilitating complex, deep-rooted discussions [with visitors].”

Digital and electronic forums for visitor interaction have also brought “new emotional pressures”, such as when museums use social media in more participatory ways, the report found.

The project suggested that many different kinds of work – including work with little or no direct public interaction – is emotionally laden, from the emotional challenges of researching ‘difficult’ collection histories, to the intimacy of working closely with objects, often for an extended period of time.

Other emotions cited included embarrassment of not always holding information about some objects, and the perceived vulnerabilities of making decisions about how collections are managed.

Certain spaces within the museum, such as storerooms, can also be associated with particular emotions and feelings, participants reported.  

The report said structural and cultural change may be required to recognise and value the range of emotions experienced by museum workers.

It said practical interventions may also help staff to feel supported, such as regularly reviewing the emotional “touchpoints” of specific roles.

“As organisations that care for people, collections, place, stories, identities, values, the environment, the past, present and future, museum and heritage work appears distinctive from other sectors,” said Woodham.

“We need to understand these distinctions better so that we know how to improve support for workers.”

Jennie Morgan and Anna Woodham will discuss their research in an upcoming issue of Museums Journal