More than a quarter of Taiwanese office employees want to assault their bosses

A significant percentage of Taiwan office workers are feeling the blues, according to the results of a survey released yesterday.

The survey, conducted by the online human resources company www.9999.com.tw (汎亞人力銀行), found that 41.23 percent of respondents said they have been suffering from insomnia, 38.06 percent said that they have been experiencing headaches or sore muscles, while 31.68 percent said that they have contemplated suicide.

Asked their recent feelings regarding work, 41.14 percent said that they have been feeling short-tempered, while 34.72 percent said they have often felt like taking the day off and not going to work.

Yang Yi-cheng, executive director of the online company, said that due to pressure, clashes in the office have increased, as seen in the fact that 25.91 percent of those surveyed said they have experienced the desire to assault their superiors or co-workers, making them what Yang called a "potent threat in the office."

Faced mounting pressure, 46.17 percent said they confide in others to relieve their burden, 35.73 percent said they use smoking as an outlet, while 32.28 percent said they ease their pain by shopping. A total of 8.21 percent said they turn to Ecstasy or other drugs for an emotional outlet.

The survey also found that 68.64 percent believe that their superiors often find fault with them or have an unfair management policy, while 76.15 percent also said they think their co-workers are smearing or undercutting them behind their backs.

In terms of occupations, those in the fields of advertising and communications, medical care, and finance have the highest rates of depressed office workers.

The lowest rates are seen among civic groups; military personnel, teachers and civil servants; and those in the retail and wholesale sectors.

The main reason stated by those in the advertising and communications sectors for their feelings of depression was the constant deadline pressure, while those in the financial sector pointed to long working hours and a highly competitive environment.

The main sources of bad feelings mentioned by the respondents overall were overwork and job performance worries.

For the survey, 40,000 e-mails were sent out to full-time office workers around the island between Sept. 24 and Oct. 6.

A total of 10,576 valid responses were collected in the survey, which is said to have a margin of error of 0.95 percentage points.