Stress bragging becoming more common in workplace

Urge to signal productivity amid prevalence of remote work settings a factor: Observers

- Sharon Salim

When Ms Ngo, a young professional, first joined the workforce four years ago, she began to feel the pressure when she heard her colleague lament about the stress of having to work overtime, including on weekends.

Being new to the team, she was still uncertain about the work culture and had to figure out if she was required to do the same, said Ms Ngo, 30. She works in education and wants to be known only by her surname.

"I did wonder if there's some unspoken expectation to do more or work longer hours," she recalled.

She noted that some bosses in general do measure hard work by the number of hours spent in the office.

What she encountered could have been "stress bragging".

Often misunderstood as venting, stress bragging has the intent of elevating one's status by showing how much one is doing at work, said Ms Annie Lim, a certified Institute for Human Resource Professionals senior professional.

Venting, on the other hand, seeks empathy or support.

Observers say stress bragging has become more common in the workplace due to a prevalence of remote work arrangements, which can make it harder for employees to demonstrate their value and be visible to their bosses and colleagues.

Said Ms Mavis Long, a clinical psychologist at online counselling platform Talk Your Heart Out: "Without the visible markers of being at work, like staying late in the office, people may resort to constantly reminding others of how much they are doing... as a signal of their productivity."

With reduced physical interactions, employees become anxious about being overlooked by their co-workers and potentially missing career advancement and leadership opportunities, she added.

Ms Lilian Lee-Cutts, a psychotherapist at counselling centre Counseling Perspective, noted that the prevalence of stress bragging in the workplace is exacerbated by the current climate of large-scale retrenchments in the global job market.