Emotional labor is, in one sense, the invisible thread that ties all our work together. Emotional labor supports and enables the creation and maintenance of our products. It is a critical community resource, yet undervalued and often dismissed.
In this session we'll take a look at a few reasons why that may be the case and discuss some ways in which open source communities are starting to recognize the value of emotional labor.
Specifically, we will cover:
- What do we mean when we discuss "emotional labor"?
- How is emotional labor different from other kinds of work?
- What expectations exist around emotional labor?
- (How) is emotional labor valued in Drupal?
- What can we do to increase the perceived value of emotional labor?
- How can we distribute the responsibility to perform emotional labor?
This talk is targeted towards all levels of the community, to coders and non-coders, and especially to project leads and those who wish to become leads.