The Tranquil Tropics? Forget it – we’re among the most stressed in the world
According to the Grant Thornton International Business Owners Survey, Malaysian business owners are among the most stressed in the world.In fact, four ASEAN countries are among the Top 10 with Taiwan taking the hit for being the most stressful place for business owners.
There is a direct correlation between stress and the amount of holidays taken (except public holidays) – Malaysians, despite being constantly reminded that we have one of the most public holidays around, only take about 10 days of annual leave a year which is near the bottom of the leisure league.
In contrast, Europeans are a relaxed lot, with an average of 22 days annual leave.
When measured against stress caused by concerns over the turnover growth in their businesses, all ASEAN countries fell in the quadrant of “Low Sales Turnover Growth, High Stress Increase”
In my business travels to Philippines & Thailand, I have found that local business owners and their staff work extremely hard, clocking in marathon 15-hour days. My anecdotal observation is that they worry too much about the details and are not necessarily working smart. A lot of time is wasted fretting over minor, unimportant but seemingly urgent details in the daytime leaving them precious little choice but to spend the evenings working on the important, non-urgent ones. Having to sit in horrendous daytime traffic does little to ease this vicious cycle.
Better delegation, staff empowerment and use of technology would go a long way to ease these stressed business owners.
posted by hew @ 10:38 am
4 Comments:
good to see another supporter of staff empowerment!
unfortunately malaysian business owners find it difficult to empower their staff - a lot of them still believe in hands on work!
i don't think the problem is particular to malaysian business owners, although it can be more acute! do pen some of your thoughts in this article.
Hey Philip
The report points to improving business and increased competition for Asian countries as the cause for increased stress levels. This is the first time Malaysia has participated so there's no point of comparison yet.
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