Is there a European ‘Great Resignation’? The case of technicians in the entertainment sector in Italy

Journal title SOCIOLOGIA DEL LAVORO
Author/s Rossella Bozzon, Francesca Martinelli, Annalisa Murgia
Publishing Year 2025 Issue 2025/171
Language English Pages 21 P. 165-185 File size 348 KB
DOI 10.3280/SL2025-171008
DOI is like a bar code for intellectual property: to have more infomation click here

Below, you can see the article first page

If you want to buy this article in PDF format, you can do it, following the instructions to buy download credits

Article preview

FrancoAngeli is member of Publishers International Linking Association, Inc (PILA), a not-for-profit association which run the CrossRef service enabling links to and from online scholarly content.

The article examines the debates on the ‘Great Resignation’ during the Covid-19 crisis in Europe focusing on the case study of technicians in the entertainment sector in Italy. In this passion-driven sector, workers are particularly exposed to processes of precarisation. Drawing on a web survey carried out by the Centro Studi Doc Foundation in November 2021 and interviews with key informants, the impact of the pandemic on labour trajectories and the reasons for leaving or changing jobs are analysed. Findings indicate that unsustainable working conditions and job and economic insecurity were the primary drivers of exit. The pandemic crisis prompted this category of workers to seek employment in other industries, showing the low quality of employment in the entertainment sector and encouraging a process of confrontation that revealed the low quality of working conditions in the entertainment sector. However, post-pandemic employment recovery did not yield significant improvements in working conditions in the sector in the short term.

Keywords: Covid-19, Great Resignation, Entertainment technicians, Mixed-methods

  1. Amanor-Boadu V. (2022). Empirical evidence for the “Great Resignation”. Monthly Labor Review, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
  2. Armano E., Morini C., Murgia A. (2022). Conceptualising Precariousness. A Subject-oriented Approach. In: Choonara J.R. do Carmo and A. Murgia, eds., Critical Approaches to Precarity: Work, Subjectivities and Movements. Bristol: Bristol University Press.
  3. Battentier A. (2021). Creative Craft in Music: Careers and Roles of Sound Technicians. In: Battentier A., ed., A Sociology of Sound Technicians. Musik und Gesellschaft. Wiesbaden: Springer VS.
  4. Becker H.S. (1982). Art worlds. Berkeley: University of California Press.
  5. Brook O., O’Brien D., Taylor M. (2020). “There’s no way that you get paid to do the arts”: unpaid labour across the cultural and creative life course. Sociological Research Online, 25(4): 571-588. DOI: 10.1177/1360780419895291
  6. Busso S. (2023). Lavorare meno: se otto ore vi sembran poche. Torino: Edizioni Gruppo Abele.
  7. Busso S., Rivetti P. (2014). What’s love got to do with it? Precarious academic labour forces and the role of passion in Italian universities. Recherches sociologiques et anthropologiques, 45(2): 15-37.
  8. Choonara J. (2022). Uncertain future: workers in the pandemic. International Socialism, 173.
  9. Coin F. (2023). Le Grandi Dimissioni. Il nuovo rifiuto del lavoro e il tempo di riprenderci la vita. Torino: Einaudi.
  10. Cook I. (2021). Who is driving the great resignation?. Harvard Business Review. Text available at: https://hbr.org/2021/09/who-is-driving-the-great-resignation (last access 11 September 2024).
  11. DARES (2022). La France vit-elle une “Grande demission” ? Publication. Text available at: https://dares.travail-emploi.gouv.fr/publication/la-france-vit-elle-une-grande-demission (last access 11 February 2025).
  12. Eurostat (2023). 3.5 million recent job leavers in Q3 2022 in EU. Text available at: https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/products-eurostat-news/w/ddn-20230216-2 (last access 11 February 2025).
  13. Eurostat (2024). Recent job starters by sex and age - Quarterly data, DOI: 10.2908/LFSI_STA_Q
  14. Gittleman M. (2022). The “great resignation” in perspective. Monthly Labor Review.
  15. Herrman J. (2021). Quitting your job never looked so fun. The New York Times. Text available at: www.nytimes.com/2021/10/29/style/quit-your-job.html (last access 11 February 2025).
  16. Hobijn B. (2022). “Great Resignations” Are Common During Fast Recoveries. FRBSF Economic Letter. Text available at: https://www.frbsf.org/research-and-insights/publications/economic-letter/2022/04/great-resignations-are-common-during-fast-recoveries/ (last access 11 February 2025).
  17. Iannuzzi F.E., Campolongo F. (2020). Precari dello spettacolo: elementi per una ricomposizione. Economia e società regionale, 2: 36-42. DOI: 10.3280/ES2020-002005
  18. INPS (2023). XXII Rapporto Annuale. Anno (Settembre 2023). Text available at: https://www.inps.it/it/it/dati-e-bilanci/rapporti-annuali/xxii-rapporto-annuale.html (last access 11 February 2025).
  19. INPS (2024). Statistiche in breve. Anno 2023. Osservatorio Gestione Lavoratori dello spettacolo e sportivi professionisti Text available at: https://www.inps.it/it/it/inps-comunica/notizie/dettaglio-news-page.news.2024.05.osservatorio-lavoratori-dello-spettacolo-e-dello-sport-dati-del-2023.html (last access 11 February 2025).
  20. Leyshon A. (2009). The Software Slump?: digital music, the democratisation of technology, and the decline of the recording studio sector within the musical economy. Environment and planning A, 41(6): 1309-1331.
  21. Liu-Lastres B., Wen H., Huang W.J. (2023). A reflection on the Great Resignation in the hospitality and tourism industry. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, 35(1): 235-249. DOI: 10.1108/IJCHM-05-2022-0551
  22. Martinelli F. (2021). The reaction of entertainment workers to the Covid-19: a cooperative case study. Paper presented at 7th Conference of the Regulating for Decent Work Network, International Labour Office, Geneva, 6-9 July.
  23. Martinelli F., De Heusch S., Toncelli R., Shamku M. (2022a). Innovative models of cooperative of independent workers for decent work in Europe. Revista Nacional de Administración, 13(1): 11-31.
  24. Martinelli F., Barion L., De Lellis S., Fila F. (2022b). L’impatto del Covid-19 sugli invisibili del mondo dello spettacolo. Ricerca sulla situazione lavorativa dei tecnici dello spettacolo a seguito della pandemia, Quaderni della Fondazione Centro Studi Doc, 1.
  25. Mondon-Navazo M., Murgia A., Borghi P., Mezihorak P. (2022). In search of alternatives for individualised workers: A comparative study of freelance organisations. Organization, 29(4): 736-756. DOI: 10.1177/13505084211041709
  26. Murgia A. (ed.)(2025). Hybrid Labour. Measuring, Classifying, and Representing Workers at the Boundaries of Employment and Self-employment. London: Routledge.
  27. Ng E., Stanton P. (2023). The great resignation: managing people in a post COVID-19 pandemic world. Personnel Review, 52(2): 401-407. DOI: 10.1108/PR-03-2023-914
  28. Orrell B., Cox D.A. (2021). The Great American Jobs Reshuffle. AEI Survey Center on American Life. Text available at: https://www.americansurveycenter.org/research/the-great-american-jobs-reshuffle/ (last access 11 February 2025).
  29. Parker K., Horowitz J.M. (2022). Majority of Workers Who Quit a Job in 2021 Cite Low Pay, No Opportunities for Advancement, Feeling Disrespected. Pew Research Center. Text available at:
  30. https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2022/03/09/majority-of-workers-who-quit-a-job-in-2021-cite-low-pay-no-opportunities-for-advancement-feeling-disrespected (last access 11 February 2025).
  31. Reich R. (2021). Why Yesterday’s Bad News about Jobs is Really Good News. Substack. Text available at: https://robertreich.substack.com/p/the-general-strike-of-2021 (last access 11 February 2025).
  32. Rubio F.D. (2012). The Material Production of the Spiral Jetty: A Study of Culture in the Making. Cultural Sociology, 6(2): 143-161. DOI: 10.1177/174997551244022
  33. Scharff C. (2018). Gender, Subjectivity, and Cultural Work: The Classical Music Profession. London: Routledge.
  34. Serenko A. (2022). The great resignation: the great knowledge exodus or the onset of the great knowledge revolution?. Journal of Knowledge Management, 27(4): 1042-1055. DOI: 10.1108/JKM-12-2021-0920
  35. Sheather J. and Slattery D. (2021). The great resignation—how do we support and retain staff already stretched to their limit?. BMJ, 375: 1-2.
  36. Sull D., Sull C., Zweig B. (2022). Toxic culture is driving the great resignation. MIT Sloan Management Review. Text available at: https://sloanreview.mit.edu/article/toxic-culture-is-driving-the-great-resignation/ (last access 11 February 2025).
  37. Zagorsky J.L. (2022). The ‘great resignation’: historical data and a deeper analysis show it’s not as great as screaming headlines suggest. The Conversation. Text available at: https://theconversation.com/the-great-resignationhistorical-data-and-a-deeper-analysis-show-its-not-as-great-as-screaming-headlines-suggest-174454 (last access 11 February 2025).

Rossella Bozzon, Francesca Martinelli, Annalisa Murgia, Is there a European ‘Great Resignation’? The case of technicians in the entertainment sector in Italy in "SOCIOLOGIA DEL LAVORO " 171/2025, pp 165-185, DOI: 10.3280/SL2025-171008