Understanding What Happens on the Other Side of the Door: Emotional Labor, Coworker Communication, and Motivation in Door-to-Door Sales

Door-to-door sales is an emotionally demanding job with a high rate of burnout and, as such, has been the subject of multiple studies on employee motivation. However, the role that communication among fellow sales team members plays in salesperson motivation has been largely neglected, which represents a critical gap in research considering the substantial amount of time that teams often spend sharing their sales strategies and experiences. The current research addresses this gap with an ethnographic case study of one door-to-door summer sales team. Analysis of in-depth interviews with salespeople and observational data from meetings and house calls revealed three dichotomies of emotional expression created by the team in their communication. These include: (a) envisioning the job as abhorrent and admirable, (b) performing the role as obscene and humane, and (c) considering team dynamics as wrought with both care and competition. We contend that staying motivated despite the emotional stresses of their jobs required salespeople to embrace these dichotomies, and doing so was powerfully facilitated through team interaction. The applicability of these findings beyond door-to-door sales is discussed, as well as further research needed to develop a more comprehensive model of coworker communication, motivation, and emotion management in service-oriented jobs with elements of dirty work or social taint.