Burnt-out young lady of mine

A week ago my daughter talked to me about her working environment in her workplace. She was employed by an American company in Subang Jaya. and positioned as supply chain officer taking care of importers from Singapore. Only those who possesed good command of English are qualified to be here. At the age of 22, I consider her as young professional.

Her firm has a "work till night" culture and everyone were putting in long hours. It looks bad if you leave early from office.  From my gathering, she was stressfully staying in office between 10 to 12 hours a day  against the normal 8-hour for normal institutions.

Her case was not uncommon. When I was in the banks my boss wanted me to work 24/7 to achieve the given target. True enough, you like it or not, almost every minutes you are thinking about selling and targets.

I told her the targets was not at all the main issue but her immediate boss must be someone who could manage and balance this burn-out situation.  Her boss can help their employees work smarter with better delegation of tasks, clearer instructions and by focusing on results instead of "face time". If your bosses are the 'I want this and that' type without 'balancing' the office atmosphere against work demand - that is where many young professionals were ending up with medical problems, including insomnia, depression and hypertension.

Such burn-out should not be taken lightly. It can deteriorate to full-blown depressive or anxiety disorders, with severe symptoms such as feelings of hopelessness and suicidal thoughts.

Staying stressful hours in office comes from the strong desire of young professionals to prove themselves. But the problem has been exacerbated in recent years because of the manpower crunch in many industries. But that does not mean they are more productive.

In her case, she took longer time to finish her task because of poor planning and lack of clear instructions by supervisor. She was already thinking of quiting the job to continue her master degree.

Note: Stay strong Nadia and take it as a lerning process.