Is your workplace toxic? Mental health of many Hongkongers on the brink due to long hours and overbearing bosses, experts warn
A competitive culture, strong stigma and indifference among employers mean mental health issues are largely ignored in Hong Kong. Support groups are calling for greater awareness to help sufferers before it is too late
The fragile mental health of many Hongkongers is being worsened by an unhealthy office culture that encourages long hours, experts warned this week as the city marked World Mental Health Day.
More than 300 million people globally are thought to suffer from depression, and some 260 million from anxiety disorders, according to the World Health Organisation. A negative work environment is one of the key culprits, experts say, impacting both the well-being of workers and their productivity. Depression and anxiety disorders are estimated to cost the global economy US$1 trillion a year.
The WHO marked World Mental Health Day on Tuesday with the theme “mental health in the workplace”, seeking to highlight the cost, both human and financial, of a poor working environment.
Hong Kong, with its frenetic working culture, is no stranger to the phenomenon. Last year the city clocked up the longest weekly working hours of 71 cities worldwide, at 51.1, according to a survey by Swiss banking giant UBS.
With no restrictions on working times, 20 per cent of people spend four to six hours working overtime each week, and another 19 per cent put in up to eight hours extra, according to a 2015 survey by Regus, an office space provider.
Dr Ivy Wong Wang, assistant professor at the Department of Psychology at the University of Hong Kong, said workplaces needed to “provide more flexible working hours and stop treating overtime work as something to be expected”.