A research on aesthetic labor and burnout: Experiences of beauty center employees

The concept of aesthetic labour has emerged as an important idea in business that has an impact on women's experiences and the overall performance of organisations. Nowadays, the importance of aesthetic labour and the sense of beauty in business is increasingly emphasised. Beauty and care centres usually consist of units that interact directly with consumers. Businesses expect the personnel employed in these departments to have visual appeal as well as technical expertise. "Aesthetic labour" refers to the process of aligning an employee's physical attributes and "soft skills" such as attitude, behaviour, tone of voice and accent with the business brand. This involves the embodiment and presentation of these qualities as a core value of the business. However, it is an important research question to determine whether the level of aesthetic labour performance expected by companies leads to a negative impact on employees. The main purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between the level of burnout experienced by female employees employed in beauty and care centres and the level of aesthetic labour. The research was conducted with the participation of female employees working in beauty and care centres in Ankara. Within the scope of the research, a total of 336 employees from 12 beauty and care centres were surveyed using online survey method. In the study, the participants' perspectives on aesthetic labour and burnout were evaluated using the Aesthetic Labour Performance Scale created by Katırcıoğlu (2017) and the Maslach Burnout Inventory adapted into Turkish by Çam (1992). The findings of the study revealed that there was a statistically significant relationship between the participants' aesthetic labour performance during guest interactions and their burnout levels.