“85% of Singapore employees expect to experience burnout at work this year, with 1 in 2 Singaporeans intending to leave their jobs in the next 6 to 12 months”
“78% of Singapore employees feel burnt out at work... 80% of employees force themselves to work even when unwell”

With such a large degree of distress at work, employees often still express hesitation in taking up the Employee Assistance Program (EAP). A larger majority of distressed employees eventually don’t book an appointment for counselling even despite much consideration and inclination to. These who do not accept mental health support persist with unmanageable prolonged stress, which then results in a state of burnout.

Burnout may present as physical tension and pains, feeling exhausted, feeling overwhelmed and procrastinating, and increased cynicism and frustrations. Workplace burnout not only affects work performance and personal mood state, it almost always spills over into personal life, thus worsening one’s relationship with loved ones.

For clients who took up the courage to seek support, one of the first things they often ask when entering the therapy room is “would my company know about the issues I share with you?”.

The answer: Client-Therapist confidentiality would be maintained, and client’s consent would be needed to disclose information. In other words, information that you share during therapy sessions will not be shared.

However, there are limits of confidentiality in which information would be disclosed under some circumstances. For examples, when compelled by law or court order, or if there is risk of harm to the self or others. Pertaining to the EAP, human resources would receive a de-identified anonymized report reflecting collated data of types of presenting concerns (e.g. anxiety / mood / stress).

Feeling slightly more assured but still having hesitations?

Have a think: If someone you love shared about their emotional or mental health distress with you, would you encourage them to accept readily available professional support?

May I gently and strongly encourage you to use that kindness towards others on your own emotional and mental well-being. After all, you matter.

Kirsty Png
Counselling Psychologist
APSY | AKIDS

In my role as a psychologist, I often get referrals through the Employee Assistance Program (EAP) to support clients experiencing anxiety, mood, and interpersonal difficulties. Hearing directly from clients as well as reflected by international research, it was clear that there are major themes contributing to decreased workplace wellbeing.

These include:

Ψ Feeling overwhelmed by job demands, such as challenges in coping with nature and/or volume of workload, or loss of work-life separation boundaries.

Ψ Growing disengagement, such as feeling a lack of control and autonomy within one’s role, decreased motivation, or a lack of growth opportunity.

Ψ Interpersonal challenges, such as lack of peer or supervisory support, and even worse, harassment, bullying, conflict resolution difficulties.

Ψ Skills challenges, such as having to cope with new technology or technical skills.

Ψ Lack of reward, such as verbal informal recognition or monetary compensation equitable to work volume.

Ψ Role ambiguity, such as being aware that there are organisational expectations yet being unclear of specific deliverables or performance indicators.

Additionally, personal challenges, such as being in a transitional phase (e.g. new stage of parenthood, relocation), home-front stressors (e.g. marital, caregiver to elderly parents), health decline, also often affect performance at work.

Please know that you really are not alone in your struggles, and I hope that the normalisation brings you some degree of comfort.

In a 2021 local mental health census, 13% reported symptoms of anxiety or depression, 9.3% reported experiencing mild to severe stress, 7.6% had clinical insomnia, and 4.9% confessed to experiencing suicidal thoughts.

An international research on ‘talking about mental health at work’ found that 35% of employees confided in co-workers, 21% in supervisors, 6% in subordinates, 5% in Human Resources (HR) personnel, and 55% did not disclose to any colleague.

Since most EAPs are either paid for or co-subsidised by the company, ‘why not utilise this benefit?’ you might ask.

The reason is because barriers including fear of stigma (i.e. “not coping well with mental health means I’m weak” or “it’s embarrassing and I would be judged”), perceptions that seeking support would result in decreased promotion opportunities or getting terminated, fear that the company would be aware of my personal issues (i.e. uncertain confidentiality boundaries) present as hinderance.

To these obstacles, it is encouraging that they are incrementally being addressed. On a national level, the Ministry of Health (MOH) has rolled out recommendations on increasing workplace healthcare resources, and media channels has also been effortful in increasing public awareness. On an individual level, the younger generation is also breaking the stigma and advocating for better mental health practises, as seen on social media as well as interviews platforms.

Therefore, with the tide progressively shifting, may I gently and strongly encourage, that if you are reading this reflection piece and sitting with the dilemma of accepting the support of therapy/counselling services, please do.