Over 50% of Gen Z Workers In Asia Are Experiencing Poor Mental Health

The pandemic arguably acted as the catalyst for conversations around work-life balance and wellbeing.

It also shifted mental health sharply into focus, with the WHO reporting a 25% increase in anxiety and depression worldwide between 2020 and 2021.

While social isolation played a huge part in this, having to adapt our working lives to accommodate lockdown restrictions while also juggling home life also took its toll.

Over three years on, younger workers in particular are still feeling the effects with 50% of Gen Z workers in Asia reporting “poor mental health”.

That’s according to a recent study by Axa which surveyed over 30,000 workers across Europe, the U.S. and Asia, including mainland China, Hong Kong, Japan, Thailand and the Philippines.

The report also found that 69% of Asia-based Gen Z workers felt uncertainty about their futures, 56% worried their skills didn’t match with their jobs and 47% felt under pressure to keep up with “the pace of change at work”.

And when you take the recent spate of layoffs into account, particularly in tech where over 220,000 tech workers have been made redundant since the start of 2023, it’s understandable why so many feel vulnerable.

“While all generations experienced the pandemic, Gen Z was the only group to do so during their late teen and young adult years when most humans are developing key skills related to interpersonal interactions as well as professional and career planning,” suggests one of the report’s authors.

“The pandemic also occurred during a time in the developmental years of many Gen Z when they are learning how to independently take on challenges and understand how to maintain a sense of security on their own.”

So how can employers and employees work together to promote better work practices—remotely and in-office—and foster a culture of health and wellbeing, across the generations?

For starters, feeling connected along with a sense of belonging is essential, particularly for workers who work remotely for all or part of the week. As such, employers should create opportunities for connectivity including mentorship and regular check-ins.

Facilitating access to learning and development opportunities should also address Gen Z’s feelings of inadequacy towards their skills and experience—separate research from Korn Ferry found that as Gen Z is highly motivated by meaningful work and the opportunity for advancement, companies need to invest in learning and development to retain young talent.

Ultimately, whatever stage you’re at in your career, if you feel like your current employer isn’t providing the support you need, it could be time to look for a new opportunity. And if that is the case, the Techwire Asia Job Board is the perfect place to start your search.

It features thousands of jobs in companies that are actively hiring, like the three below.

Staff Designer, GenerativeAI 3D Experiences, Adobe, San Jose

Adobe Design is seeking a Staff Designer with a passion for and expertise in 3D creation/editing tools to join MINT (Machine Intelligence and New Technology) and help build the best generative AI 3D tools for creativity. In this role you will define and communicate clear strategy and vision in a relatable, inspirational, and simple way to understand, find opportunities to create simplicity out of complexity and explore design ideas via sketches, storyboards, wireframes, and prototypes. Find more information here.

Data Engineers, Tesla, Austin

Data Engineers at Tesla are responsible for processing structured and unstructured data, validating data quality, and developing and supporting data products. In this role you will design, code, test and document programs and scripts using agreed standards and tools to achieve a well-engineered result, derive an overall strategy of data management, within an established information architecture that supports the development and secure operation of existing and new information and digital services, and plan effective data storage, security, sharing and publishing within the organization. See the full job description here.

SiteOps Infrastructure Engineer, Meta, NE

The Site Operations team is responsible for the delivery of data center compute and storage at Meta. It is seeking a SiteOps Infrastructure Engineer to identify and tackle the biggest technical and operational challenges and opportunities before SiteOps and represent site operations in leading work to define and architect new solutions on global initiatives, working with stakeholders across infra data centers and infrastructure teams. You will also get the opportunity to act as a global communication and advisory point of contact for the design, implementation and delivery of projects. Access additional details here.

Future proof your career today via the Techwire Asia Job Board

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