Abstract
We analyze burnout in a sample of commercial workers in Spain and its relationship with sociodemographic variables, personality, and concern about the influence of the COVID-19 pandemic on their jobs through a cross-sectional design. Participants (n = 614) answered an online survey, including questions about sociodemographic data, concern, NEO-FFI (personality), and MBI (burnout syndrome). The survey took place from October 2020 to May 2021. We assessed the relationships between sociodemographic variables, pandemic concern, and personality as predictors of burnout by hierarchical regression analysis and then tested using SEM (structural equation models). The proposed model showed adequate goodness-of-fit indices. The results of the present study suggest that the COVID-19 pandemic had little effect to the development of burnout syndrome in commerce employees. However, in agreement with previous literature, the present study shows that personality has a significant role in predicting burnout. Neuroticism, introversion, conscientiousness, and agreeableness were strong predictors for burnout dimensions. In addition, we found that personality directly affected the pandemic concern: individuals with high levels of Neuroticism and low levels of extraversion, agreeableness, and conscientiousness have more pandemic concerns. In conclusion, personality is an important factor that affects the level of workers’ concern about the influence of the pandemic on their job and the development of burnout syndrome. Furthermore, although we found significant differences between groups formed by various sociodemographic characteristics, the conclusion regarding this type of variable is that their ability to predict burnout is deficient.
Highlights
According to the Spanish Ministry of Industry, Commerce, and Tourism, the commerce sector constitutes one of the most valuable sectors of the Spanish economy [3]: it accounts for 12.6% of the total gross added value (GVA) of the Spanish economy, and retail trade alone accounts for 5.2% of the total GVA
The results indicate that the personality variables were the ones that showed the most significant relationship with burnout
The present study suggests that the COVID-19 pandemic affects the development of burnout syndrome in commerce employees but in a very minimal and irrelevant way
Summary
Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. The delicate and complex situation faced by the commerce sector and its impact on its workers has led to tightening working conditions, translating into an increase in occupational diseases such as burnout [7,8,9,10,11]. Some studies have analyzed how the COVID-19 pandemic impacts burnout levels in commerce workers, but they are few. Rodríguez-López et al [15] analyzed how the COVID-19 pandemic related to burnout levels in Spanish fashion retail workers, proving that fashion retail workers exhibited similar results as those observed I healthcare workers. It is necessary to emphasize that by carrying out their work in close contact with clients, commercial workers may face a situation similar to that of health workers in close contact with patients, which can lead them to high levels of burnout [8,14,15]. Toh et al compared other essential workers (such as retail workers) to healthcare personnel and found that they exhibit higher depression, anxiety, and stress [14]
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