The impact of COVID-19 on hospitality employee's mental health. The moderating role of job location selection

The aim of the current study is to explore the effects of COVID-19 on the mental health of the hospitality workforce, using the transactional theory of stress and coping. We examined how obsession with COVID-19 contributes to Coronavirus anxiety levels and posited that this link is moderated by job location selection. We tested models using data from 403 seasonal hospitality personnel who worked for two consecutive tourism periods in Greece. The results indicate that the levels of obsession and anxiety vary among occupations, with education decreasing, and the number of children increasing their levels. The moderated mediation analysis reveals that, in the proposed model, the selection of job location can weaken the direct effect of obsession to anxiety. The study provides practical implications for mitigating the mental health effects induced by global health crises, like the pandemic, for hospitality employees . • Obsession of COVID leads to anxiety in hospitality personnel. • Obsession and anxiety levels differ among professions. • Selection of job location can moderate the direct effect of obsession to anxiety.