New Dimensions of Emotional Labour – a Case Study of the “Smile Counter”

Abstrakt

The paper is a case study of the Quantum CX company’s “Smile Counter” in terms of the techno-optimistic beliefs of the device’s designers and the doubts expressed by the public about it. The system for measuring smiles and rewarding for their total time of duration, which is the product under study, is framed in the paper as an “affect detection system” in the sense of “agents in influencing behaviour and training people to perform in recognizable ways”. Analysing nine sources available online, the author presents the development of the product itself, its marketing representations, and public perception. The results are finally related to the category of emotional labour and the discourse on approaches to the latest technologies, particularly the use of artificial intelligence in management.