Nearly all mid-level employees in Vietnam say jobs are stressful: survey

By Ngoc Tuyen December 26, 2016 | 12:46 am PT

The survey has also found more than half in the group don't actually like what they are doing, despite good pay.

Fresh Vietnamese grads dissatisfied with life in the workplace: survey

Money cannot buy happiness.

Despite their relatively high income, a majority of employees holding mid-level positions in Vietnam do not like their jobs and often face stressful situations at work, a new survey has found.

These positions mostly pay between VND10-50 million ($440-2,200) per month, but in some cases up to VND100 million (4,400), according to the survey conducted by Navigos Search, a headhunter firm.

To put that into perspective, the average monthly income in Vietnam was $175, according to the World Bank's data.

However, 58 percent of the mid-level employees said that they did not have or had little interest in their currents jobs. Nearly 90 percent experienced stress at different levels.

More than half of the total 1,100 respondents also said that their companies did not have feasible promotion plans to motivate them. Only 17 percent said they were rewarded for achievements while 58 percent seldom received bonuses.

Nguyen Phuong Mai, a senior executive at Navigos Search, said that the survey reveals why some mid-level employees are not happy and that employers need to make policy changes to prevent brain drain.

“Negative aspects that a talented individual sees in the company can force him or her to quit the job,” Mai said. “This will not only affect the enterprise’s work flow and productivity but also its reputation and competitive capacity in the market.”

Another survey from the employment website JobStreet of some 13,000 employees in the second quarter showed that 85 percent were not satisfied at work. The two main reasons were boring tasks and low salaries.