Most white-collar workers are suffering from increased anxiety
as the New Year arrives, especially those who consider the past
year wasted, a recent report suggests.
51job.com, one of the country's leading Web-based headhunters,
surveyed 3,633 office workers over the Internet about their mood at
work and its causes at the year-end. Most of the respondents were
between ages of 18 and 29.
More than 91 percent of the office workers surveyed felt anxious
these days as they didn't see any remarkable achievements made
during the past year.
Over 70 percent of those who said they felt anxious claimed they
are fed up with their work or losing confidence in their career
development.
"I even suffered sleepless nights and will easily lose my temper
these days when thinking of the past fruitless working year," said
Maggie Wang, who works as a secretary at a local Japanese trade
company.
The depressing mood is especially prominent among ordinary
employees, who accounted for nearly 65 percent of those claiming to
feel anxious. Only 19 percent of mid-level managers said they felt
anxious about wasting the last year, and only 1.7 percent of senior
managers surveyed said they are feeling stress.
The report also indicated that young employees who have only
been on the job for one or two years are more likely to be
anxiety-stricken than veteran employees, as the number of young
sufferers is three times that of people with at least six years of
work experience.
"Anxiety is no longer rare among modern office workers who are
under heavy working pressure, but things will get worse when
everybody is faced with an annual evaluation at the year-end," said
Xiao Yu, an analyst at 51job.com.
Since it is tough for employees in low positions to see the
results of their contributions, it is natural for them to feel
anguished and depressed when looking back at the past year,
analysts said.
Twenty-one percent of survey respondents blame the past
fruitless year on their own laziness and lack of an effective work
plans.
(Shanghai Daily January 1, 2005)