Job Demands and Negative Outcomes after the Lockdown: The Moderating Role of Stigma towards Italian Supermarket Workers

Abstract

The Job Demands-Resources model hypothesises that some variables (especially personal and social resources/threats) moderate the relationship between job demands and work outcomes. Based on this model, in this study we examine the role of stigma towards customers as a moderator of the relationship between job demands and a series of work outcomes: that is, fatigue, burnout, and satisfaction. We advance that the relationships between work demands and outcomes should be influenced by the employee’s perceptions regarding resources and constraint. In particular, we hypothesised that social stigma towards customers can represent a reliable moderating variable. Hypotheses were tested among 308 Italian supermarket workers in five supermarkets in the same chain, just after the end of the Italian lockdown caused by COVID-19. Results showed that stigma towards customers moderates the relationship between job demands and the consequences on the professional quality of life. The implications of these findings for the JD-R model are discussed.