Can’t wait for the winter: Self-reported effects of seasonal employment on hospitality workers’ wellbeing and job satisfaction

Atypical forms of employment, particularly seasonal work, are becoming more common in the hospitality industry because of seasonal nature of the destination and therefore, it is important to research the effect of this type of employment on workers well being. This paper investigates and compares the self-reported effects of various seasonal work arrangements on employees’ physical and mental well being and job satisfaction. Questionnaire was delivered to 100 Dubrovnik hospitality workers, measuring physical and mental well being and job satisfaction. Results show that workers feel that atypical employment causes damage to their physical and mental well being, while self reported job satisfaction is lower compared to permanent employment models. The greatest damage was reported in lack of sleep, tiredness, nervousness and general life satisfaction among seasonal and permanent seasonal workers. This represent major problem in tourism sector, workers are feeling unhappy, tired and overloaded by the amount of work. If these practices continue Croatia may experience lack in seasonal workforce, especially when European Union opened foreign job markets available. Croatia should increase the number of permanent contracts and introduce better job conditions for seasonal workers. Keywords: hospitality employees, seasonality, atypical employment, physical wellbeing, mental wellbeing, job satisfactio