FOUR capitals from Southeast Asia are in the top 15 of the world’s most stressed out cities, according to reports.
Manila, Jakarta and Hanoi are placed 5th, 6th and 7th respectively, with Kuala Lumpur at 13th place.
According to Forbes, research site Savvy Sleeper recently produced a list of 69 cities from 53 countries as “most stressed out” after conducting a study to determine the highest and lowest levels of workplace burnout.
It focused on key health and work-related categories to standardise the research. That includes percentage of population sleeping less than seven hours a night, percentage of population working more than 48 hours a week, time spent in traffic, mental health disorders and prevalence, lack of motivation at work, employee “presenteeism” and productivity, lack of vacation days, annual work hours and percentage of stressed-out Glassdoor reviews, a job seeker site.
Forbes quoted Savvy Sleeper staff writer Ashley Doyle as saying: “Our research suggests businesses should make addressing some of the factors affecting employee work-life balance a priority.
“Not only will this ensure staff health and wellbeing are protected, but it will also help companies continue to recruit and retain top talent.”
Health and wellness portal Idiva said the World Health Organisation (WHO) recognised burnout among workers as a disease, adding it to their International Classification of Diseases list.
“Burnout is a syndrome conceptualised as resulting from chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed,” said WHO.
Sleeper Savvy analysed data from seven reputable sites, including the International Labour Organisation,the Global Employee Engagement Index and the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, as well as more than 340,000 employee reviews on Glassdoor to rank global cities by their burnout potential, said Idiva.
No Asian capitals are in the top 10 list of least stressed cities. Research found that cities and companies are becoming more aware of the burnout problem and its effect on workplace productivity.
Japan recently introduced a new law limiting overtime to less than 100 hoursamonth to tackle the nation’s culture of working long hours, averaging 99 hours a month while 54.5 per cent slept less than seven hours daily.
Europe, which already has a reputation for being more laidback when it comes to its workforce, is also making strides.
France’s new law, for example, allows employees to switch off from work emails when they’re outside the office.