“…For SMEs, employees are their core assets and are crucial to their survival and growth (Shan et al, 2022 ). Employee work stress may precipitate burnout (Choi et al, 2019 ; Barello et al, 2020 ), which manifests as fatigue and frustration (Mansour and Tremblay, 2018 ), and is associated with various negative reactions, including job dissatisfaction, low organizational commitment, and a high propensity to resign (Lu and Gursoy, 2016 ; Uchmanowicz et al, 2020 ).…”