Should I leave this industry? The role of stress and negative emotions in response to an industry negative work event

Abstract

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the majority of American states and cities issued workplace restrictions, such as "shelter-in-place" or "stay-at-home" orders, to prevent the spread of the disease. While these workplace restrictions varied in start date, duration, and scope, most businesses not considered "essential" were required to physically close their spaces and continue their operations remotely. The COVID-19 pandemic is an example of a negative work event that impacts entire industries; the impact, however, was not equal across industries (US Department of Labor, 2020). Instead, the COVID-19 pandemic has put a spotlight on the flexibility of some industries and the vulnerability of others. For example, employment rates in the wholesale trade, transportation and warehousing, information, and financial industries, changed little over the months following workplace restrictions (US Department of Labor, 2020).The hospitality industry, in contrast, was greatly affected because typical operations in this industry, like meetings, events, hotels, and restaurants, had to close their spaces. The US Department of Labor (2020) reported that the hospitality industry, particularly the hotel and restaurant sectors, accounted for two-thirds of the jobs lost in March of 2020, during the height of the workplace restrictions orders. The American Hotel and Lodging Association (2020) reported that 70% (roughly 3.7 million) of the direct hotel industry workforce were laid off or furloughed and the National Restaurant Association (2020) reported that 7 out of 10 restaurants laid off their employees, resulting in over 8 million restaurant employees laid off as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The fear of being infected and fired: Examining the dual job stressors of hospitality employees during COVID-19

“…The first contribution of the current study is the assessment for how hospitality employees perceive and respond to the risk of contracting the COVID virus in their workplace. As COVID-19 primarily spreads through either direct or close contact with infected people, recent studies in hospitality have paid considerable attention to the topics of cleanliness and hygiene ( Byrd et al, 2021 , Yu et al, 2021a , Yu et al, 2021b , Zhang et al, 2020 ). These studies have offered valuable information on how to enforce safety behavior among hospitality workers ( Zhang et al, 2020 ) and how to increase the perceived safety of food packaging ( Byrd et al, 2021 , Yu et al, 2021b ).…”

“…In terms of technology, several studies examined consumers’ perceptions of robot services in hotels ( Kim et al, 2021a , Kim et al, 2021c , Kim et al, 2021b ), food delivery services using drones ( Kim et al, 2021a , Kim et al, 2021b , Kim et al, 2021c ), and online food ordering ( Brewer and Sebby, 2021 ). A couple of studies on infectious risk also examined the risk perceptions of restaurant food and packaging ( Byrd et al, 2021 ) and the perception of hygiene attributes in the hotel business ( Yu et al, 2021a , Yu et al, 2021b ). Another interesting study by Baum and Hai (2020) discussed the concerns related to lockdown restrictions through a human rights lens.…”

“…This issue is illuminated by the recent hospitality studies that have focused on the impacts of COVID-19 on employees. Yu et al, 2021a , Yu et al, 2021b revealed that the impacts of COVID-19 were so profound that it made employees reexamine their actual choice of working in the hospitality industry. Wong et al (2021) identified two new domains of occupational stressors related to COVID-19 in addition to the traditional hotel-work stressors, namely, unstable and more demanding hotel-work-environment stressors (e.g., concerns about layoffs, frequent reporting/documentation for hygiene issues, and demanding hygiene policies or guidelines) and unethical hotel-labor-practice-borne stressors (e.g., forced advanced annual or unpaid leave, demands to replace job duties with other departments).…”

Present and prospective research themes for tourism and hospitality education post-COVID19: A bibliometric analysis

“… 28% Demand analysis and tourism development Crespí-Claderaet al, 2021 ; Kourentzes et al, 2021 ; Liu et al, 2021 ; Qiuet al, 2021 ; Fotiadis, Polyzos, & Huan, 2021 ; Guo, Liu, Song, & Y, 2021 ; Wickramasinghe & Ratnasiri, 2020 ; Gallego & Font, 2020 . 44% Others Kaczmarek, Perez, Demir, & Zaremba, 2021 ; Qiu et al, 2021 ; Wieczorek-Kosmala, 2021 ; Huang, Makridis, Baker, Medeiros, & Guo, 2020 ; Khan et al, 2021 0 28% Hospitality and tourism workforce/employee Organizational trust & resilience Guzzo et al, 2021 ; Ngoc et al, 2021 ; He et al, 2020 ; Salazar, 2020 ; Mao et al, 2020 28% Job performance & life satisfaction Tu et al, 2021 ; Aguiar-Quintana et al, 2021 ; Kim et al, 2021 ; Karatepe, Saydam, & O, 2021 ; Vo-Thanh et al, 2020 28% Turnover intentions Yu et al, 2021 ; Bajrami et al, 2021 ; Manoharan et al, 2021 16% Others Sakdiyakorn et al, 2021 ; Chadee et al, 2021 ; Zhang et al, 2020 ; Baum et al, 2020 ; Park et al, 2020 28% Customer/tourist studies …”

“… Yu et al (2021) using mixed methodology study employees' attitudes and behaviour towards the hospitality industry due to subjective stress and negative emotions due to negative work events such as COVID-19 the pandemic. The study finds that the industry level impact of the pandemic has made several employees uncertain about their future careers in the hospitality industry, and subjective stress is seen to increase their intentions to quit the industry and also result in negative word of mouth.…”