Since the outbreak of the COVID‐19 pandemic in South Korea in January 2020, many South Korean employees have been experiencing work stressors, threats of job insecurity, and feelings of isolation, which together lead to emotional exhaustion. The present study aimed to compare the emotional exhaustion of South Korean employees before and after the pandemic, as well as to examine how the demographic characteristics of employees affected their emotional exhaustion. We administered surveys to 276 employees before the COVID‐19 pandemic (from July to October 2019) and 301 employees after its onset (from March to April 2020). A series of t‐tests demonstrated that both employee samples were similar demographically. Hierarchical regression analyses revealed that even when controlling for baseline emotions, the employees assessed after the COVID‐19 experienced significantly higher emotional exhaustion than those assessed before. Furthermore, in reaction to COVID‐19, female employees felt more emotionally exhausted than their male counterparts. Finally, after the COVID‐19 pandemic, younger and short‐tenured employees reported higher emotional exhaustion than older and more experienced employees. These findings provide insight into managing the mental health of employees during the COVID‐19 crisis.

中文翻译：

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COVID-19 前后韩国劳动力的情绪衰竭

自 2020 年 1 月韩国爆发 COVID-19 大流行以来，许多韩国员工一直在经历工作压力、工作不安全的威胁和孤立感，这些共同导致情绪疲惫。本研究旨在比较大流行前后韩国员工的情绪衰竭，并研究员工的人口特征如何影响他们的情绪衰竭。我们在 COVID-19 大流行之前（2019 年 7 月至 10 月）和 301 名员工（从 2020 年 3 月至 2020 年 4 月）对 276 名员工进行了调查。一系列的吨‐测试表明，两个员工样本在人口统计上相似。分层回归分析显示，即使在控制基线情绪的情况下，在 COVID-19 之后评估的员工经历的情绪衰竭也明显高于之前评估的员工。此外，在对 COVID-19 的反应中，女性员工比男性员工感到更加疲惫。最后，在 COVID-19 大流行之后，年轻和任期较短的员工比年长和更有经验的员工报告了更高的情绪衰竭。这些发现为在 COVID-19 危机期间管理员工的心理健康提供了见解。