Abstract: Along with the longitudinal and in-depth advancement of emotional researches, the public’s understanding of emotions has surpassed the previous essentialist pursuit and uses constructivism to interpret and manage emotions. As professional helpers, social workers manage and use emotions throughout the entire process of helping others, which means that social workers who use interpersonal situations as their work background will face the risk of emotional stress beyond the normal level. At present, the emotional labor of social workers is regarded as the work behavior that relies on professional skills and contributes to negative effects, showing the characteristics of using professional skills as a tool, maintaining professional relationships as a guide, and increasing personal costs as a consequence. The emotional labor of social workers is affected by personal factors, role identification, and organizational environment, and produces protective, preventive, and transferable major coping strategies. This article suggests backing up the emotional labor process of social workers in terms of providing a supportive organizational environment, promoting the flow of social resources, and emphasizing educational development, so as to promote the improvement of the social work service system.

Key words: social work, emotional labor, coping strategies, role identification, occupational burnout