The way employees from the healthcare and hospitality sectors perceive the impact of the COVID-19 crisis, as a potential career shock, with regard to their motivation at work

Abstract

In the literature COVID-19 was identified as a potential career shock that might have a major impact on people's careers and motivation at work. However, literature on the impact of career shocks on work and career related outcomes is still sparse. Therefore this study aims to gain insight into whether and how employees from the healthcare and hospitality sectors perceive COVID-19 as a career shock and what impact it has on their motivation at work. After conducting twelve semi-structured interviews, this study found that COVID-19 can be a career shock as it changed employees thoughts about their careers or caused them to search for different jobs. However, for the majority, COVID-19 did not constitute a career shock which can be explained as COVID-19 can be perceived differently by each person depending on the interplay between work, home and personal factors. This study also found that COVID-19 in general had a negative impact on the motivation at work. For employees from the healthcare sector because the work demands, which lead to a lower motivation, increased due to COVID-19 and for employees from the healthcare sector because the energy resources, which lead to a higher motivation, decreased due to COVID-19.