How to manage workers' stress amid overworking culture, AI anxiety

While workload and pressure from management are stressing out workers in Southeast Asia, employers can do some things to help workers deal with that stress, according to an expert.

Among new hires, heavy workload (37%) and high pressure from management (27%) are the top two stressors, according to a report from Jobstreet and JobsDB by SEEK.

And this is a cultural thing, says Simran Kaur, regional director, SEEK, in talking with HRD Asia.

“In Asia – Southeast Asia, especially – we have a bit of an overworking culture. We always want to adhere to the powers above us in the hierarchy; this view of not wanting to let our boss down.

“We also have a culture of wanting to be overachievers or ‘excellence in delivery’. And most of the time, we equate that with the ability to get promoted. So this, whether you like it or not, is one of the things that creates an environment [where] saying no to additional tasks probably will not be well received in an organization.”

Because of this, people generally just want to do more and more, she says.

Amid varying stress levels across SEA, the SEEK report found that less than half (48%) of companies are "doing enough to help employees cope with stress".

SEEK was named as the Best Companies to Work for in Asia in 5-Star Employers of Choice. Read the full report here.

How does AI affect employee well-being?

Adding to the already stressful culture is the rise of artificial intelligence (AI) in workplaces over the past few years, says Kaur.

“There is an anxiety around AI, definitely, for workers that are in very repetitive kinds of roles,” she says.

She notes that a previous Ipsos research found that in markets like Thailand and Malaysia, “there are a lot of employees there who feel that their roles may be replaceable because it's so repetitive in nature.”

Two in three employees in Singapore believe that AI has already impacted their jobs, according to a previous Randstad report.

Kaur, however, also notes that workers striving to update their skills to keep up with the changing demands of worker amid the rise of AI should be the “norm”.

“In whatever role that you're doing, you should always look for an avenue to make yourself better. So, whether AI disrupts you or not, you are kind of growing.”

How to manage stress in the workplace?

Still, employers have a lot of work to do, especially as nearly half of employees across the world are suffering from burnout, according to a previous report.

Empowering middle managers is key to helping workers deal with stress, says Kaur.

A lot of times, people managers play the middle layer role between the top management and the team members, she says.

“If your middle management, your people managers feel empowered, they can help your team members to do a lot of different things, like prioritizing tasks that need to be done, because they're closer to what needs to be delivered. 

“Also, because they're closer to what needs to be delivered, they can understand whether the deadlines are realistic or not, whether this team structure meets the requirements of what we're trying to do,” she says.

This is important so that workers would feel that their managers “got their back” and the middle managers can “communicate exactly to the higher management what they can deliver in a more realistic outlook”.

To address the stress brought about by the rise of AI, it’s important for employers to have open conversations with their workers, says Kaur.

“The reality is AI is going to augment human capability. It’s going to redesign some jobs, but it's not going to take away those high-value jobs that many of us do today.” 

So from an employer’s perspective, “How do you prepare your workforce to be ready to get onto this journey?,” she says. 

Getting workers onboard is key, she says.

On the side of workers, “when you are on the journey together with the organization, then the acceptance level becomes higher. And it also becomes something that you're comfortable with, because you know it's happening, you are involved in the process, you are growing with it,” she says.

Nearly a third of Singaporeans don't believe their workplaces are supportive, according to a previous TELUS Mental Health Index.