PUTRAJAYA: Civil servants between the age of 30 and 40 are the ones constantly seeking counseling to deal with stress, according to Public Service Department (PSD) senior deputy director (Psychology Management) Dr Abdul Jalil Hassan.
He said among the factors that contributed to the situation were financial issues as many of those in that age group were concentrating in building a family, having more children, buying a house and taking loans.
“Most of those who seek counseling are doing it voluntarily, but some were referred to by their heads of divisions or departments,” he told reporters after the opening of Public Service Psychology Conference 2016 by PSD deputy-director-general (Operation) Datuk Sabariah Hassan.
Dr Abdul Jalil, however, said the stress level among civil servants, in general, was still stable and under control as their economic situation was still good and they were still receiving their monthly salaries.
Nevertheless, he said stress was expected to become world’s number one illness by 2020, which will bring about negative impacts to the society, if not properly tackled.
There are two kinds of stress, namely eustress, which is positive stress to achieve success, and distress, which is negative stress that must be reduced, he added. – Bernama