Dubai: Low salary adds to the pressure at workplace, according to 69 percent of employees in the UAE and the rest of the Middle East and North Africa (Mena) region.
In a research conducted among 10,956 respondents from the UAE, Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and other Mena countries, about a third (28.2 percent) of workers said that low pay is the “main stress factor” at work, reported Gulf News.
A total of 1,454 professionals in the UAE participated in the survey. More than a third of them (33 percent) cited low salary as the number one cause of stress at work. while 21 percent said that their personal financial situation is the top “stress-inducing factor,” the report said.
Some 12.3 percent of the respondents across the region also said that lack of job security is their main source of anxiety in the workplace. The next biggest stressor is office environment, cited by 9.7 percent of the respondents, while not having a work-life balance, cited by 9.1 percent of those surveyed, is ranked as the fourth-biggest anxiety triggers among the region’s employees.
Overall, the main stress factors for residents across Mena are their financial situation (40 percent), followed by their work (19 percent) and their personal issues (18 percent).
The survey was conducted online by Bayt.com from June 26, 2016 to August 2, 2016. The study sought to establish the challenges facing professionals at work today.
“Work-related stress can be caused by poor work organization, poor work design, unsatisfactory working conditions, low salaries and lack of support from colleagues and managers,” Suhail Masri, vice president of employer solutions at Bayt.com, was quoted as saying.
The good news, however, is that some companies in the UAE are planning to increase the salaries of their staff next year. According to a separate survey by Willis Towers Watson, workers’ salaries are forecast to increase by an average of 4.6 percent in 2017. Aon Hewitt Middle East also shared a similar forecast this month.
Bayt.com reportedly found that about eight in ten employees (83 percent) are feeling overwhelmed” on the job, with 26.2 percent of them saying that they are feeling overwhelmed “all of the time”.
A significant number (74.8 percent) admitted that their jobs are more demanding than others, while 35 percent claimed they spend too much time at work, while only a quarter said they spend just the right amount of time. A much smaller number (2.9 percent) confessed that they do spend too little time at work, reported Gulf News.
When asked how work-related stress is affecting their lives, about a third (27.9 percent) said their family relations suffer because of the challenges they’re facing at work. Friendships (21 percent) have also been affected (21 percent), as well as work performance (19.9 percent) and health (16.4 percent), the report said.
