Emotional demands exact a toll on satisfaction and women's career prospects

Once, emotions were frowned on in the workplace, but now they take centre stage. Seventy per cent of FTSE companies use psychometric testing, and some, such as Orange (for call centre staff), claim that they never recruit anyone for their technical skills; hiring is all about personality (Bunting).

Much of this is because of the rise of the service sector, since its workers are part of the product being sold: diners in a restaurant go for the attentive service and the ambience, as well as the food. According to management guru Tom Peters, this emotional orientation makes work “more fun”.