26% Of Malaysian Youths Want To Commit Suicide Because Of Their Jobs
A psychologist said that this should be a wake up call.
By Tang Ruxyn — 15 Jul 2016, 11:03 AM
A recent survey has revealed an interesting but somewhat disturbing statistics - 26.6% Malaysian youths feel suicidal about their jobs
This means that 1 out of 4 working Malaysian youths said that he or she feels like dying because of work.
More than 15,000 youths aged between 18 and 35 years old participated in the online survey, which was conducted by job site SkootJobs.com.
The results of the survey show a worrying trend as many respondents seemed to loathe their work
While 25.3% respondents said that they felt "OK" about their job, 33.3% of them said that they hated their job.
More alarmingly, the survey found that only 8.7% "loved" their jobs and another 6.1% "liked" their jobs.
"I am, frankly, a little shocked by the statistics. I feel things are improving, but this survey shows that there is still a long way to go," Asim Qureshi, the CEO of SkootJobs.com said.
Qureshi said in a statement that more employers work much harder now compared to a few years ago to sell themselves to their potential employees.
"We can see that in the quality of ads they post as they’re realising that if they want to build the best teams they need to attract the best talent and that hard work presumably extends to retaining talent too."
Meanwhile, a psychologist has warned that these sentiments by Malaysian youths will affect the workforce in the long run
David Fernandez, a psychologist with over 20 years of experience, said that the productivity of a person who loves their job outweighs one who doesn’t.
"If employers paid more attention to the statistics at hand it would be a great help in tackling the worryingly high levels of suicide in Malaysia. It is the second leading cause of death among Malaysian youth," he added.
David Low, from leading venture builder LaunchPad, a company that hires both foreign and local talent, echoed Fernandez and said that "Malaysian employers needed to see this as a wake-up call".
"Malaysia is young, and generally younger people have higher expectations than previous generations. They’re not willing to wait. Firms do need to make sure they offer more, look after their talent, and that’s great for both employer and employees," he added.
While it is uncertain why a high number of respondents detest their work, it was reported that young Malaysians highly value work-life balance, according to a recent survey by Universum Malaysia
Many Malaysian youths (62%) have cited work-life balance as their ultimate career goal, as reported by The Star's R.AGE.
In fact, work-life balance came up tops on their list of career goals for the third time in a row, placing more importance over job stability which came in at second place in the recent survey.
About 17,000 Malaysian undergraduates participated in the Universum’s Malaysia Top 100 IDEAL Employers talent survey.
Not only are Malaysian youths unhappy at their respective workplaces, but they are also bored.
Last year, an MTV Asia international study among 26 countries revealed that Malaysian youths exhibited the "highest levels of boredom" in the world.
Youths in Malaysia recorded the highest levels of boredom at 83%, followed by the United Kingdom (79%), Brazil (79%), Singapore (78%) and Sweden (77%).
The study also revealed that almost all (97%) of the more than 15,000 respondents were afflicted with boredom; with two-thirds experiencing it on a weekly basis and nearly one-quarter daily.
60% of young people hate being bored. In fact, they hate boredom more than feeling anxious (58%), having acne (55%), or missing out (54%).
However, being broke, failing or being embarrassed are larger concerns.