Battling Executive Burnout in the 24/7 Travel Business
Photo Credit: "Hospitality has always been a 24-7 business, but it’s more of a 24-7 business than it’s ever been." Unsplash / Khara Woods
Skift Take
Burnout is everywhere in our precarious global economy, but it's especially pronounced in the travel and hospitality industry. Knowing the reasons why can help prevent it from taking over.
In the couple of months before Lauren Westerfield resigned from her corporate hospitality job, she kept getting a sign.
A tarot card reader in her spare time, she repeatedly pulled the card for death, which signifies change, a shedding of skin, or the closing of a chapter.
“I was like: Gosh, could this get more obvious?”
So she finally did it. The day after she resigned from her role as vice president of marketing at the Palms Casino and Resort in Las Vegas, she wrote a candid post on LinkedIn about her decision, hoping to show that it was possible to step down from a high-profile role in a graceful way.
Westerfield's story is reminder for everyone in a hard-driving job, but especially for executives in travel, where it can often feel like a desperate 24/7 hamster wheel as competition grows and the stakes climb.
Westerfield's decision left her feeling "1,000 pounds lighter" and put an end to the 2 a.m. wake-ups, nonexistent motivation to go to the gym, and the lack o
