The purpose of this article is to contribute to the knowledge of managing emotional labor during a crisis. The COVID-19 pandemic has been a disrupting event, particularly affecting frontline healthcare workers and their supervisors who faced pressures to manage emotions during their interactions with patients. Emotional labor has been studied in emergencies; however, the case of Mexico offers insights into an understudied context and a long and singular crisis. Drawing from multi-level storytelling interviews with medical managers, physicians, and nurses in hospitals in different states of Mexico, this article argues that COVID-19 blurred relationships between performance and outcomes of emotional labor. As the organizational goal focused mainly on saving lives, some workers intensified and performed emotional labor innovatively, but others deviated from feeling rules. Managers’ role became crucial for employees to abide by affective requirements facing disruption.

本文的目的是提供在危机期间管理情绪劳动的知识。COVID-19 大流行一直是一个破坏性事件，尤其影响到一线医护人员及其主管，他们在与患者互动时面临管理情绪的压力。在紧急情况下研究了情绪劳动；然而，墨西哥的案例提供了对未充分研究的背景和长期而单一的危机的见解。本文通过对墨西哥不同州医院的医疗经理、医生和护士的多层次故事访谈，认为 COVID-19 模糊了情绪劳动的绩效和结果之间的关系。由于组织目标以挽救生命为主，部分职工创新强化情感劳动，但其他人则偏离了感觉规则。经理的角色对于员工遵守面临中断的情感要求变得至关重要。