Why Are Event Professionals Leaving Their Jobs? The Issue Is Not Job Love, But Job Sustainability

When an event is flawlessly completed, what participants see is a well-functioning organization. Behind the scenes, however, there are teams managing budgets, suppliers, hotels, food and beverage operations, transportation, technical production, speakers, changing demands, and last-minute crises all at once. The sustainability of this unseen workload is becoming one of the major human resource issues in the event industry by 2026.

A news article from Skift Meetings dated August 13, 2026, questions the working methods that the industry has long normalized: People may love what they do, but can this commitment be the result of long working hours, insufficient staffing, or wage imbalances? The article discusses this issue through the tendencies of professionals who have worked in the event industry for many years to leave their careers or transition to freelance work.

Other industry research published in 2026 also indicates that the issue is not just about individual experiences.

As Staffs Shrink, the Burden on Existing Employees Increases

The June 2026 research by the Meetings Industry Association (MIA) shows the human resource pressure in the event industry more concretely. According to the research, 20% of participating organizations experienced a decrease in staff numbers in the last 12 months due to cost pressures, market uncertainty, and expectations regarding demand. The percentage of those who say the workforce structure has changed is 51.

The critical data here is not just the slowdown in hiring. 38% of organizations report that instead of hiring new employees, they are increasing the workload of existing staff. In the same research, 48% of participants indicate that burnout, stress, or issues related to employee well-being have increased in the last 12 months, with high workload being the primary reason. Staff shortages and financial pressures are also among the factors fueling the problem.

This situation creates a significant operational contradiction. Limiting the staff to control costs may reduce personnel expenses in the short term. However, when the work does not disappear, tasks are distributed among existing employees. In event operations, this translates to more projects, more coordination, and especially longer working hours during busy periods before and during events.

Loving the Profession Does Not Make the Work Model Sustainable

The event industry has a unique aspect in terms of human resources: The work can produce strong professional satisfaction.

The assessment published by MPI in April 2026 highlights the creative and meaningful aspects of the work of meeting and event professionals, noting that much of the effort behind a successful event often goes unnoticed. While participants enjoy the experience, the organizing team is closing the registration desk, solving last-minute issues, and often starting to think about the next event.

For this reason, the distinction between "loving your job" and "good working conditions" is important.

Commitment to the profession may facilitate tolerating periodic intensity. However, when constant excessive workload, low staff capacity, and the disappearance of work-life boundaries turn into a permanent work model, passion alone may not be enough to keep an employee within the system.

Research by PCMA regarding the business events sector also shows that this discussion is not new. In the research, more than a third of planners reported feeling anxious or burned out about the future, with work-life balance emerging as one of the leading sources of burnout.

The Value of the Profession Is Being Questioned as Much as the Salary

Another dimension of the issue is the gap between the responsibilities taken on by employees and the value attributed to the profession.

In the open-ended responses of the Meetings Today 2026 Trends Survey, conducted with approximately 700 participants, salary, burnout, and career sustainability emerge together. Participants point to low salaries compared to responsibilities, long working hours, stress, limited career development, and disruptions in work-life balance as among the human resource issues in the sector.

The same research also highlights the discomfort event professionals feel when their work is sometimes perceived as "party planning." However, a large event requires managing many areas of expertise simultaneously, from financial risk management to contracts, accommodation to F&B operations, technical infrastructure to security, and participant experience.

The insufficient recognition of the strategic value of the profession does not only create problems in terms of employee motivation. It can also affect salary policies, career ladders, and the human resources allocated by companies to their event teams.

Attracting Young Workers to the Sector Is Also Becoming Difficult

The problem is not limited to the departure of existing employees. There is also pressure on the entry of new talent into the sector.

In the June research by MIA, 90% of industry professionals state that rising employment costs limit their capacity to hire young or entry-level employees. 57% of employers express a lack of confidence in the sector's ability to attract the workforce it will need in the future.

This situation could create an experience gap in the medium term.

When companies reduce junior positions due to costs and shift towards more experienced employees and multitasking models, short-term operations may be preserved. However, if the entry channel for new employees narrows, the pool from which mid-level and senior professionals will be trained in a few years may also shrink.

Indeed, the fact that 73% of companies in the MIA research are trying to develop their early-career employees for future leadership positions and that 38% are increasing their training and development investments shows that the preservation of the talent pool is also seen as a strategic issue by employers.

Why Is This Issue Important for Hotels and Event Businesses?

Burnout among event professionals cannot be seen solely as a human resources department issue.

The departure of an experienced employee from a convention hotel, event agency, or corporate organization team does not just leave one position vacant. Supplier relationships, venue knowledge, crisis management experience, contract practice, and the corporate memory established with the client can also be lost.

A new employee can take over the same job description; however, reaching the same level of experience takes time.

Moreover, under the conditions of 2026, the expected workload from event teams does not seem to be decreasing. The Meetings Today research indicates that planners are trying to produce the same or higher value with more limited resources in the face of rising F&B, AV, labor, accommodation, and service costs. This shows that the pressure on employees is connected not only to the number of events but also to the increasingly challenging budget and supply management of each event.

From the employer's perspective, the solution may therefore not only be to offer "wellness" practices. The real questions begin in operational design: How many projects an employee manages at the same time, how overtime before events is compensated, whether there is a rest plan after busy periods, the alignment of team size with workload, and how managers handle last-minute requests should be measured.

Lessons for HORECA and Event Teams in Turkey

Since a large portion of the existing resources are centered in the US, Canada, and the UK, it would not be correct to directly apply these rates to event workers in Turkey. Without a comparable up-to-date study prepared with the same scope and methodology for Turkey, it cannot be concluded that "burnout is experienced at the same rates."

On the other hand, the operational model being discussed raises meaningful questions for hotels, convention centers, organization companies, and event teams in Turkey.

Especially in businesses where the peaks of seasons, fairs, weddings, conventions, and corporate events overlap, human resource planning should not be evaluated solely by the total number of employees. Working hours per project, overtime, leave usage, night and weekend work, last-minute task changes, and the number of active organizations per employee can be monitored together.

Employee turnover rate is also not a sufficient indicator on its own. When the reasons experienced staff leave, which teams see concentrated departures, and how workload changes before leaving are not tracked, the business problem can only be seen when a position is vacated.

Stafflink's View

Reducing burnout in the event industry to employees' stress management skills may leave the real risk invisible for businesses.

If the problem truly stems from high workload, insufficient staffing, wage-responsibility imbalance, and the expectation of constant availability, it is difficult to produce a lasting solution with only individual resilience training. The design of work also needs to change.

In our view, especially hotel and event businesses need to add a second performance indicator next to the question "Was the event successfully completed?": "What workload did the team complete this event with?"

In the short term, carrying out the same number of organizations with fewer employees may seem efficient. However, if the model leads to the loss of experienced employees, constant hiring, training costs, and the weakening of corporate memory, the real cost may be higher than payroll savings.

The issue facing the event industry's human resources is not whether employees love their professions. The real question is whether a working system can be established that allows them to do the work they love for many years.