Job Motivation, Burnout and Turnover Intention during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Are There Differences between Female and Male Workers?

The working conditions during COVID-19 highlight the relevance of workers and their occupational health and well-being. The pandemic has caused adverse effects on workers and sharpened social and economic problems, such as a gender gap. In this study, with a multisector sample of 1044 Ecuadorian workers, we present a gender analysis where we evaluate how burnout can mediate the relationship between motivation and workers' intention to leave their jobs in the COVID-19 context. To test the proposed hypothesis, structural equation model (SEM) was used. In the proposed conceptual model, turnover intention was considered as the dependent variable, the two dimensions of motivation (intrinsic and extrinsic) were the independent variables and burnout was tested as a mediating variable. Consistent with pre-COVID-19 research, our findings confirm the incidence of job motivation on burnout and turnover intention. Additionally, through Sobel's criteria, we determine that burnout has a mediating effect between job motivation and turnover intention. In terms of gender, we find different results for female and male workers through critical ratios. Our study indicates that female and male workers' burnout and turnover intentions levels are different when intrinsic motivation is present. In contrast to pre-COVID-19 studies that indicated no gender differences on these variables, we associate these results to gender roles in lockdown conditions during the pandemic.

The Influence of Work-Family Conflict on Burnout during the COVID-19 Pandemic: The Effect of Teleworking Overload.

If there is any field that has experienced changes as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, it is work, primarily due to the implementation of teleworking and the effort made by workers and families to face new responsibilities. In this context, the study aims to analyze the impact of work-family conflict on burnout, considering work overload, in teleworkers during the COVID-19 pandemic. To evaluate the hypotheses, we used data collected during the last week of July 2020 using an online survey. Work-family conflict and burnout were measured using the Gutek et al. (1991) and Shirom (1989) scales. We tested the hypotheses using a structural equation model (SEM). The results indicated, between other findings, that there was a positive relationship between work-family conflict and family-work conflict and all the dimensions of burnout. However, there was no effect of teleworking overload in the work-family conflict and burnout relationship. This article is innovative because it highlights the importance of the economic and regulatory conditions that have surrounded the modality of teleworking during the pandemic, and their influence on wellbeing and psychosocial risks in workers.