Hotel and catering industry: The most underprivileged businesses of the pandemic
In this day and age, in a world of economic, humanitarian and moral crisis, uncertainty in getting on top of the emotional health of most people. The reason for this acuteness raise of uncertainty is the epidemic that became pandemic, the devious virus Covid-19. This era has began in March of 2020 and continues to spread panic, fear, anxiety, psychological and financial opression till today. Most industries gave up against the invisible enemy. The government has taken unprecedented measures to control the spread of the virus. Education has changed its form, students and teachers had to redefine their roles through distance learning. Work from home was the only solution in order to maintain the operation of each company. Tourism was banned and many businesses such as restaurants, coffee houses and hotels were closed. Such consequences in our country, which were caused by the lockdown, have to be seen since the great economic downturn of 2009 and 2015. One in five companies are unable to repay the loans due to the minimal incomes, while more than the 50% of them, express their concern about the fact of being closed for more than a few months. The prior measures resulted in unemployment, suspension of work, allowances and debts. How did workers faced the new reality?. How did suspesion of work looked like?
In the course of “ Leadership and emotional intelligence Lab” powered by Panteion University’s Ad and Pr Lab, the students were called to create content about the Emotional Intelligence and Leadership during the period of the pandemic in order to give prominence to people with leading characteristics. Our team has decided to analyse the emotional situation of the employees who work in restaurants, coffee houses or in small hotels and give answers to the previous questions and to new questions that arose through the process.
Our idea
The measures that were enforced by the government for the second year in a row has led to the closing of businesses such as restaurants, cafeterias or hotels, leaving unanswered the question of the re-opening. At the same time, thousands of employees lost their jobs or were laid off. We chose the hotel and catering industry( restaurants, hotels, bars, cafes). During the period of the first lockdown , from March 2020 to June, owners shut down their businesses in the catering area, while hotel industry walked on the same road. Few of them maintained their function.These companies were given a “financial breath” in the summer of 2020, until the pause of their operation once again in November of 2020 until May of 2021. We believe that these sectors of commerce were hit hardest by any other, as they have been out of business for almost a year. The strict measures to alleviate the virus were catalytic.
In addition, we decided to choose this field of research because the majority of the team had previously worked in the catering industry. Besides, we all have more than one person in our social environment, who works either in the restaurant or in a hotel unit. In this text we have gathered all the steps we followed to carry out our research in identifying and analyzing the emotions and experiences of restaurant and hotel staff. To locate our findings, we chose the combination of quantitative and qualitative research.In other words, we conducted a questionnaire but also personal interviews, in order to penetrate even more into the mental world of the employees. At the same time, the visualization of our results and their diffusion in the wide multimedia field is presented.
Quantitative research-Questionnaire
To gather and evaluate the feelings and experiences of the audience mentioned above, we decided to initially create a questionnaire. We aimed at employees and people who were on work suspension during the pandemic and more specifically, during both the first quarantine (March 2020-June 2020) and the second quarantine (November 2020- May 2021). The questions were selected after purposeful discussion and extensive analysis, as we wanted them to be specific and the goal was to draw more substantive conclusions. The sample we received consists of 134 answers. The questionnaire consists of 12 closed-ended questions and most of the answers follow a five-point scale of frequency and amount (never-rarely-sometimes-often-always / not at all-a little-moderate-enough-a lot). Its duration was 5 minutes and was considered accessible to all.
From the data collected we drew conclusions about the dominant emotions and leadership characteristics of the respondents. At the same time, we obtained quantitative data about how often respondents talk to their social environment ( family, co-workers). Along with the previous, we concluded how often the respondents get emotionally involved with the problems of people from their social environment and more generally how strong is the relationship with them. In addition, results were collected regarding the degree of adaptation to the new conditions. Finally, our questions concerned the degree to which the respondents are considererd as an example to follow, in terms of compliance with the measures. Our main concern was not only to rank and measure the answers, in order to obtain the right results for our research, but also through this process, we tried to help the respondents through the questions in order to make a personal review of the way they experienced situations and discover any strengths and weaknesses in their workplace.
Infographic
In order to present the answers to the questionnaire in a shorter and interactive way, we created an infographic, which points out general and specific conclusions, which we consider worth including, based on various criteria such as marital status or age:
Interviews
We move on to the next stage of our research, the qualitative research. We did not just choose to ask questions for a formal interview, but instead, we addressed the employees of our field of interest, through a more open discussion. In other words, we chose not to limit the employee to a typical framed question but to give him the opportunity to describe his or her personal experiences and emotions. Essentially, our goal was to identify any emotional and leadership characteristics. While we were creating the questions we took into account, to some extent, the Baron model but also a more exploratory form of the already existing questionnaire questions. We came up with 11 final questions, for the 9 participants which were enough to triger the interest of the nine interviewees. In this way we were given the opportunity to gain information about the relationship that employees have with their surroundings. Moreover, by confessing their problems and their thoughts, we came across with their feelings and plans for the future, motivation and appetite for working in the now modified workplace as well as with their creativity.
In general, most answered that they feel uncertainty and fear for the future in this period. Nevertheless, they have a spirit of optimism, as almost everyone answered that they hope for a better tomorrow and that the pandemic is temporary and not permanent. Another question that is of particular interest, is related to whether the people who were left on a suspension of work felt relieved that a third party took the reins and decided on the fate of the professional sector in which they operate (EODDY, Civil Protection), or wished to have complete control over their activities. Most replied that they had no choice and that they had to adapt to the circumstances following the relevant instructions. Most of them declared that one else could decide on such an important issue better.
The interviews were conducted live and remotely with people working in various areas of Greece, such as waiters, cooks, hotel employees, bartenders. The interviews were carried out in various ways and always following the measures against Covid-19. One of them was the shooting of a short video with footage of the people themselves who shared their experiences with us. In case the interview took place remotely, the phone and internet platforms were the means that brought us together.The second way was to record the discussion to form of a podcast, where a restaurant worker was invited. In this meeting he describes for his work experience during the reality we faced and we are still facing. In this process, it was observed that the guest felt from the very beginning quite comfortable with the speaker, which is confirmed by the flow and duration of his speech.
The direct interaction with people made us realize what really happened in their psychological world and not to treat them as simple numbers and percentages based on their answers to the questionnaire and other research. We managed to cultivate empathy for employees and to pay close attention to what they say.
click here to listen to our conversation
Social Media/ Video
In the last stage of our research, after collecting the necessary data and reaching interesting conclusions, we decided to create a video in which we summarize our experience with excerpts from the videotaped interviews, with alternating shots and faces and with quick answers so that it can be found the interest of the viewer.
Additionally, we have chose the Instagram platform, by creating an open page with the name “Ade_geia_”, in which will be published information and material from the research we have conducted, as well as some must- watch parts from the our interviews. In addition, the following can share their personal stories from their work environment and post it either in the form of a story or in the form of a post and then using the hashtag #employeesvscovid19 they will be reposted on the group profile. In this way users will be able to interact with each other and especially those who come from the same job industry may often identify with the personal experiences of others and eventually feel a relief, which will minimize the degree of uncertainty felt by most workers in these sectors.
Click here to see our video
Our trip to the microcosm of catering and hotel workers was a valuable experience for us. Not only did we conduct unprecedented research on our data and develop our research skills, but the most important of all was the fact that we came in contact with people and discussed with them issues that we would not have attempted under other circumstances. We got to know people more deeply and they gave us hope for the future, while we drew and gave strength and support in a difficult time, which tends to alienate people. Therefore, we feel that we fought a little more alienation and came closer to our fellow human beings, as it is true that, at any time, we all change positions. We hope that order will be restored in the near future and that we, as a group, will motivate the people we have socialized with, to feel intimate, to eliminate their fear, to share and to discover their best version of themselves.
Click here to read the full report of the research
Special thanks to our professor Dimitra Iordanoglou for the help in this project
our team :
