<p>How teachers engage in emotional labor to mitigate job burnout is a critical issue. This study investigated the motivational classification of emotional labor and its adaptability through its associations with future goals, achievement goals, and job burnout. A sample of 1,235 junior high school teachers participated, and structural equation modeling was conducted. The results indicated that: (a) Emotional labor can be categorized into extrinsically motivated and intrinsically motivated types; (b) Extrinsic future goals and avoidance-work goals more strongly predicted extrinsically motivated emotional labor than intrinsically motivated emotional labor, whereas intrinsic future goals and approach-mastery goals more strongly predicted intrinsically motivated emotional labor than extrinsically motivated emotional labor; (c) Extrinsically motivated emotional labor positively predicted job burnout, whereas intrinsically motivated emotional labor did not significantly predict job burnout. These findings suggest that teachers should minimize extrinsic future goals and avoidance-work goals to reduce extrinsically motivated emotional labor and, in turn, alleviate job burnout.</p>