The effect of COVID-19 pandemic on food and beverage sectorworkers' burnout levels: The case of Diyarbakır

Epidemics have affected humanity throughout history. The Covid-19 outbreak, which emerged in Wuhan, China, spread rapidly wordwide and shook our country to a great extent. To prevent the spread of the disease, restrictions such as closures and curfews have been imposed worldwide. Food and beverage businesses are among the sectors most affected by these restrictions. The economic crises and restrictions experienced in the sector during this period greatly have affected the employees. With the addition of high stress and burnout to the closures many situations, such as quitting and decreasing quality in the organizational structure, have emerged. Service personnel in the food and beverage sector perform a profession that requires constant communication with people and a smiling face. In addition, employees in this sector, which is focused on satisfaction, were overwhelmed by the weight of the workload during this period and experienced a sense of burnout with the fear of getting sick and infecting their families Therefore, understanding the consequences of burnout is an important research area to shape the future of individuals and businesses.This study is important in terms of how much food and beverage sector employees who employed thousands during the COVİD-19 pandemic are affected by burnout. This study investigated the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on the burnout levels of food and beverage sector employees operating in Diyarbakır. The study was conducted with the survey technique.The 414 food and beverage sector employees were surveyed. The data were analyzed through statistical methods. According to the results, it has been seen that the rate of those who have a fear of contracting COVID-19 disease has 23.7% more burnout syndrome than those who do not have a fear of contracting the disease. Moreover, it was determined that women were more afraid of the COVID-19 pandemic than men, especially individuals aged 46 years and over who experienced more burnout than other age groups, single participants felt more burned out than married participants, and postgraduate graduates experienced less fear of the pandemic. Apart from this, no significant differences were found regarding working time in the food and beverage sector and fear of COVID-19 disease and burnout. Finally, it was understood that participants earning minimum wage and less experienced more burnout than other income groups. The findings are remarkable in terms of the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on the burnout syndrome of food and beverage sector employees.