Singapore workers have highest burnout rate in region

The good news is that the vast majority of employers here are either upbeat or neutral over their staff numbers for the rest of this year.

However, the bad news is that Singapore is also seeing the highest levels of employee burnout in the region.

These were the findings of the latest quarterly employment trends report released yesterday by global recruitment firm Hudson.

The firm surveyed a total of 426 Singapore employers in August on their views for the October-December period for the report.

An overwhelming 93.2 per cent of employers say they will increase or maintain headcount in the remaining months of 2012.

But Singapore workers are also seeing the highest levels of employee burnout in the region, with nearly a third, or 32.6 per cent, of employers here reported an increase in staff burnout.

Local employees are also having rising workload, the highest figure in all Asia-Pacific markets studied, said Hudson.

Nearly two thirds, or 60.8 per cent of employees here said their workload has increased over the last year and almost half, or 45.5 per cent, now work 51 hours a week or more.

Keeping a work-life balance is one of the key issues being explored by the Government as it looks for solutions to arrest the falling birth-rate.

Mr Wilson Wong, Senior Lecturer at UniSIM's School of Business , said that Singapore employers need to realise that employee burnout not only has a social cost but could affect their bottomlines too.

"It is also about time that employers realise that longer working hours do not necessarily translate into greater productivity. For instance, France with its 35-hour work week, has ironically one of the highest productivity rates in the industrialised world," he said.

"Further, government organisations such as SPRING could also promote greater awareness of the social and economic cost of burnout among local employers."