蓝领工人精疲力尽

Business

商业

Labor shortages -- Blue-collar burnout

劳动力短缺——蓝领的职业倦怠

Why so many workers are fleeing the hospitality sector

为什么这么多员工离开酒店行业

Restaurant and hotel bosses have had a tough year.

餐厅和酒店老板们度过了艰难的一年。

Some 700,000 hospitality workers threw in the towel on average each month in the past year.

在过去的一年中，平均每个月约有70万名酒店员工甩手辞职。

Bars, cafes and eateries are 1.3m workers short relative to the 16.9m employed before covid-19.

与新冠之前的1690万人相比，酒吧、咖啡馆和餐馆的员工人数减少了130万。

On January 4th the Bureau of Labour Statistics reported that a record 4.5m Americans quit their jobs in November, 9% up on a month earlier.

1月4日，劳工统计局报告称，11月份有创纪录的450万美国人辞去了他们的工作，比一个月前增加了9%。

The quit rate in leisure and hospitality jumped by a percentage point, to 6.4%.

休闲娱乐和酒店业的离职率上升了一个百分点，达到6.4%。

Uncertainty from the Omicron variant may make matters worse: as cases surged in December, restaurant footfall fell sharply, according to OpenTable, an online booking website.

奥米克戎变体带来的不确定性可能会使情况变得更加糟糕：根据在线预订网站OpenTable的数据，随着12月病例激增，餐厅的客流量急剧下降。

As in other industries, workers in hospitality are leaving for various reasons, from fear of infection to better opportunities elsewhere.

与其他行业一样，酒店业员工离开的原因也是多种多样，从害怕感染到能在其他地方找到更好的工作机会。

But one big motive is burnout.

但其中一个很大的辞职原因是疲惫。

Psychological exhaustion is more often associated with hard-charging investment bankers and other professionals.

心理疲惫通常发生在那些强硬的投资银行家和其他专业人士身上。

Amid the pandemic it has afflicted many blue-collar workers, too.

但在疫情期间，它同样困扰着许多蓝领工作者。

Surveys find that chronic stress is a growing concern across the labour market, but dissatisfaction is especially high in service roles, where hybrid work is not possible.

调查发现，长期压力是整个劳动力市场日益关注的问题，但在不可能从事混合工作的服务岗位上，不满情绪尤其高。

Data collected by Glassdoor, an employment portal, found that employees rate the hospitality sector as one of the worst for work-life balance.

就业门户网站Glassdoor收集的数据显示，员工将酒店业评为工作与生活平衡最差的行业之一。

Mentions of “burnout” in reviews of employers on the site have doubled during the pandemic.

在疫情期间，网站上对雇主的评论中提到“疲惫”的次数翻了一倍。

Workers report that new tasks such as dealing with angry customers and enforcing health mandates have added to the burden.

员工们称，应对愤怒的顾客和履行健康规定等新任务增加了他们的负担。

Work in restaurants and hotels can be physically taxing, poorly paid and uNPRedictable.

餐馆和酒店的工作可能会很耗费体力，报酬低，而且形势难以预测。

Unlike white-collar workers, who suffer from needing to be constantly available, service workers burn out as a result of uncertain schedules and a lack of control over time, says Ashley Whillans of Harvard Business School.

哈佛商学院的阿什利·惠兰斯表示，与需要时刻待命的白领不同，服务行业的员工感到精疲力竭的原因是不确定的工作安排和缺乏对时间的掌控。

Ian Cook of Visier, a human-resources-analytics firm, says that time off during lockdowns gave employees an opportunity to reflect on their relationship with “fragile and meagrely paid work”.

人力资源分析公司Visier的伊恩·库克表示，封锁期间的休假使员工们有机会反思他们与“脆弱且报酬微薄的工作”之间的关系。

Firms have scrambled to respond.

企业争相响应。

Many food and accommodation businesses have raised wages—by an average of 8.1% year on year in the third quarter, the highest increase on record.

许多餐饮和住宿行业的企业都提高了工资——第三季度平均同比增长8.1%，是有记录以来的最高增幅。

That may not be enough.

这可能还不够。

In one poll of hospitality workers, over half said higher pay will not lure them back by itself.

在一项针对酒店业员工的调查中，超过一半的人表示，单靠更高的工资并不能诱惑他们回来。

Large retailers such as Amazon and Target, which require many of the similar skills, are poaching hospitality staff by offering non-cash perks like subsidised college education, parental leave and career advancement.

亚马逊和塔吉特等大型零售商——它们需要的需要职业技能类似——正在通过提供非现金福利的方式来挖走酒店业的员工，例如提供大学教育补贴、育儿假和职业晋升通道。

Most restaurants cannot afford to match such offers.

大多数餐厅都提供不了这样的待遇。

Daniel Zhao, an economist at Glassdoor, foresees a permanent reduction to the hospitality workforce.

Glassdoor的经济学家丹尼尔·赵预测，酒店业的劳动力将就此永久减少。

“High turnover tends to be contagious,” he says, and early resignations can start a vicious cycle.

“高流动率往往会影响到其他人，”他说，提前辞职可能会开启恶性循环。

As some workers quit, those who remain must pick up the slack, leading to more stress.

当一些员工辞职，留下来的人就得收拾残局，从而导致更多的压力。

This in turn provokes more exits, and so on.

这反过来又会引发更多的离职，循环往复。

Add an ageing population, with dwindling numbers of young people prepared to toil in kitchens or sweep hotel corridors, and hospitality businesses may be contending with blue-collar burnout for years to come.

再加上人口老龄化，愿意在厨房干辛苦活或打扫酒店走廊的年轻人越来越少，在未来几年，酒店业可能需要持续与蓝领职业倦怠作斗争。