Bad caring: Reframing the role of empathy in the hospitality industry

Purpose Oftentimes, hospitality employees experience toxic empathy that leaves them feeling emotionally drained after work. This paper aims to raise the necessity for research to investigate the relationship between empathy and psychological distress to understand the way in which adjusting sensitivity to others’ emotional situations contributes to hospitality employees’ mental health and, therefore, their ability to embrace healthy empathic abilities. Design/methodology/approach Guided by the stress process theory, the authors developed a theoretical framework to investigate the effects of empathic abilities on psychological distress and determine whether emotion regulation moderates the relationship between them. Findings The findings provided compelling evidence that empathy is a complicated process that encompasses both positive and negative aspects, affecting social anxiety and depressive symptomology. Emotion regulation moderated the relationship between empathy and social anxiety. Practical implications This study provides practical contributions to hospitality management that help organizations understand hospitality employees’ mental health better regarding empathic abilities and therefore build effective coping strategies to share with employees. Originality/value This study provides a theoretical underpinning explaining the mechanism of psychological distress in empathizers by specifically arguing that empathic abilities can engender ambivalent effects among hospitality employees.