Customer mistreatment and employee well-being: A daily diary study of recovery mechanisms for frontline restaurant employees in a hotel

Abstract

Research on customer mistreatment towards frontline service employees in the hospitality industry has been steadily rising in recent years, but little is known about the mechanism underlying its detrimental impact on the non-work life of employees and why some of them could handle it effectively. By integrating conservation of resources theory with the stressor-detachment model, this daily diary study examined the effect of daily customer mistreatment on employees’ daily well-being at home (vigor and exhaustion) through daily psychological detachment. Employees’ recovery self-efficacy and the trait of resilience, which might mitigate the process were also examined. An experience sampling methodology was applied, and the survey data were gathered from 54 frontline restaurant employees conducted across 5 consecutive workdays. Results of hierarchical linear modeling supported all the hypotheses in this study. Our findings revealed a spillover effect of customer mistreatment and the importance of improving employees’ recovery in the hospitality context.