Pressure Points: How Stressed Out Is Hong Kong?

As Minal Mahtani handed out ribbons to raise awareness of mental health issues in Central last Saturday, she didn’t ask for donations. Her ribbons were green, to signify growth and new beginnings. But in Hong Kong—Asia’s stressed-out city—the battle’s just beginning.

A government report by the Census and Statistics Department found last year that Hongkongers work an average of 2,300 hours each year—well eclipsing the average of 1,700 hours per annum of other developed countries. In fact, Hongkongers are working so much uncompensated overtime that it’s running a tab of some $10 billion, the Hong Kong Confederation of Trade Unions estimates. And the city is stressed out to the brink.

Mahtani is the founder and organizer of OCD [obsessive-compulsive disorder] and Anxiety Support HK, which runs a support group twice a month for the city’s stressed-out workers. She says that some Hongkongers are so crippled by stress they can’t leave their homes without suffering acute symptoms.

“Many are having panic attacks because they feel they can’t speak to their bosses about workloads,” says Mahtani. “They can’t speak to their colleagues about delegating work, because they feel like they’ll be judged and they begin to socially isolate themselves.”

Occupational Hazards

Are certain jobs in Hong Kong more stressful than others?