It is not often a top bureaucrat in Singapore publicly discloses personal vulnerabilities, but the novel coronavirus pandemic is upending what is seldom discussed outside close circles.
Singaporean Economic Development Board Managing Director Chng Kai Fong (莊凱峰), a former top aide to Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍), opened up about his mental health struggle during the pandemic at a technology conference held virtually on Sunday.
Chng began his online panel at the She Loves Tech conference by this year as “an unprecedented year in terms of personal crisis.”
In April, he lost his brother-in-law to cancer, while a close family member is going through serious mental health issues, he said.
He described his emotional and mental state as one he had never experienced in his 40-plus years.
“There was this feeling of heat and anger starting with palms and then sort of moves towards your entire body,” Chng said. “There was one day when I couldn’t even wake up; I had to really drag myself out at 11:30 and go for a run because I knew these were signs of depressive bouts. Even during the run, I was super breathless. It was a bad sign.”
He is not alone: More employees in Asia are reporting high stress levels since the start of the pandemic, a Mercer survey published last month said.
It said the percentage of senior management who reported experiencing high levels of stress jumped from 9 percent to 33 percent.
Chng said he decided to share his experience with others who might be facing pressure to lead during times of fear and uncertainty.
One thing that helped him cope is to “acknowledge that it’s OK not to be OK,” he said.
“Another is to seek help,” he said. “We can do a lot more as leaders to acknowledge that and to share a ... bit more about ourselves.”
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