Nearly 90 percent of Chinese staff in foreign companies suffer from various types of work-related illness such as burnout, stress, frustration, loss of sleep, or numbness in the neck and shoulders after work, a recent survey found.

Of those polled, 15.4 percent said they felt they might break down and fall seriously ill at any moment. Another five percent said the pressure on them was so great they thought it might be fatal, said the survey, conducted by Horizon Research Consultancy Group, a popular polling research institute in China.

The survey sampled 1,521 employees working for foreign companies in four big Chinese cities -- Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Wuhan. Interviews were carried out via telephone, e-mail, fax, or face-to-face meetings.

Half of the respondents do little physical exercise, and many complain about working more than ten hours a day, returning home late at night, and having to work on weekends, the survey said.

Middle-aged, highly paid employees were the most vulnerable group to work-related illnesses.

A lack of exercise and regular health checks are also reasons that foreign company employees fall sick, the survey said.

Landing a job with a foreign company, usually with fat wages, is something that is widely admired in today's tight job market in China, where millions of university graduates scramble to find a job.

Horizon analysts said jobs in foreign companies came at a steep price -- physical and mental health.

Middle-aged staff are more stressed because they also have to shoulder family responsibilities, in some cases with three generations living under one roof.

Some employees have an unhealthy lifestyle -- drinking, smoking and skipping breakfast -- that makes matters worse, the analysts said.

(Xinhua News Agency January 31, 2007)