THE
ANSWER
IS NO
Chronic
workplace
stress is more
serious than
you might think
it is. And with
more people
burning out at
work, here’s
why you should
take extra
precautions to
balance your
work and life.TEXT
HAYLEY TAI
ILLUSTRATIONS
MIXKIT/SUPRIYA BHONSLE
hen business
manager
Sarah Chua
was clocking
13 hours a day, five days a
week in a tech start-up, she
thought it was normal.
That was because
she had company – her
colleagues stayed until
nearly 9.30pm every day.
Sarah kept it up for a
few months, slogging right
through dinner before she
called it a night at 9pm at
her office in Telok Ayer.
Even then, the e-mails
continued to stream in from
overseas clients, and the
e-mail browser was the last
thing she’d see before she
slumped into bed.
“It’s part of the work
culture, where you see
your colleagues working
overtime to finish a
project, like some sort
of competition,” she
concludes.
“Then, I accepted
overextension as a way
of life.”
Sarah’s enthusiasm
dissipated four months on.
“I simply lost steam,”
says the 26-year-old, who
had left her previous nine-
to-six job at a multinational
corporation for new
challenges.
“I couldn’t think, I
was mentally exhausted,
and because of that, I
was forgetting things and
busting deadlines. I didn’t
want to crawl out of bed on
some days. I wasn’t eating
well, and I suffered from
gastritis. That fear of not
performing well turned me
into a nervous wreck.”
Even during Sarah’s
two-day breaks from work,
she felt pressured to finish
“any outstanding task”, as
it appeared that whoever
could complete the projects
ahead of the deadlines was
looked up to by colleagues –
and perceived by bosses – as
a star performer.
In today’s girlboss
culture, we often wearW
harried lifestyles as a badge
of honour, as if stress,
anxiety and sleeplessness
were prerequisites
for success.
Achieving a simpatico
work-life relationship
often seems so out of reach
for many in the corporate
hustle-and-bustle culture- and overextending has
become an acceptable norm
of professional life.
With more suffering
from work-induced
burnout, the condition
is now recognised as an
occupational phenomenon
by the World Health
Organization in its
International Classification
of Diseases.
CRASH AND BURN
THE BAD NEWS: More
are crashing faster from
burnouts – as quickly as
in a few months – as they
push themselves to the
limit to meet their goals,
as anecdotal evidence
suggests. While no study on
burnout has been conducted
in Singapore, that doesn’t
mean the syndrome is not
uncommon here.
This year, a survey
released by health service
company Cigna showed that
Singaporeans are among
the most stressed at work
globally, with almost one
in eight considering their
stress unmanageable.
Psychologist Daniel Koh
of Insights Mind Centre,
who sees 20 per cent more
of such work stress-related
cases than he did five years
ago, observes: “They’re
multitasking and taking
on big things, trying to do
things at a fast pace or in a
short span of time, and are
afraid of stagnating in
their careers.
“And they’re doing
it all as proof of their
abilities. Now, combine
that with the pursuit of
success and perfection
alongside expectations
from peers and family, and113