Work is the most common answer people give when asked what is wearing them down, and it is the answer least likely to be met with a useful response. This page is about what you can actually do, starting with what the law here will and will not support.
This page describes a situation, not a condition. Nothing here is a diagnosis and most people reading it do not need one. If what you are dealing with has lasted a long time, or has stopped responding to changes in the situation itself, the Conditions library covers the clinical picture.
What your employer is obliged to do
Less than most people assume, and more than most employers act on.
The Tripartite Advisory on Mental Well-being at Workplaces, issued jointly by the Ministry of Manpower, NTUC and the Singapore National Employers Federation, is the main document. It is advisory, not mandatory. It recommends action at three levels: organisational, such as reviewing HR policies and setting norms on after-hours contact; team, such as manager training and access to an employee assistance programme; and individual. It was first issued on 17 November 2020 and reissued as a second edition on 20 November 2023.
The Workplace Fairness Act changes part of this from guidance into law. The Bill passed Parliament on 8 January 2025, with a companion dispute resolution Bill on 4 November 2025, and it names disability and mental health conditions among the protected characteristics. It is expected to take effect at the end of 2027. Until then the non-statutory Tripartite Guidelines on Fair Employment Practices are what apply.
What you can formally ask for
Since 1 December 2024 the Tripartite Guidelines on Flexible Work Arrangement Requests give employees who have completed probation a formal route to request one of three things:
- Flexi-place: working from a different location, including from home.
- Flexi-time: different hours, same total.
- Flexi-load: a reduced workload, with pay adjusted to match.
Your employer must properly consider the request and respond in writing within two months. A rejection has to rest on reasonable business grounds, such as cost or effect on output, rather than a general dislike of flexible working.
Be clear about what this is. It is a right to ask and to be answered properly. It is not a right to be granted what you asked for, and it is a set of tripartite guidelines rather than an amendment to the Employment Act. That distinction matters if you are planning what to do next.
Employee assistance programmes, and the confidentiality question
An employee assistance programme, usually called an EAP, is counselling paid for by your employer and delivered by an outside provider. It typically covers anxiety, low mood, burnout, grief, conflict at work and personal or relationship difficulties, usually for a set number of sessions.
The question everyone actually has is whether the employer finds out. How it works in standard practice:
- What you say in a session stays between you and the counsellor. Session content is not passed to your employer.
- What the employer receives is aggregated and anonymised: how many people used the service, and broad categories of issue. Not names.
- The exceptions are the usual two. You give written consent to disclose, or there is a genuine risk of serious harm to you or someone else.
If you are weighing this up, ask the provider directly what is reported back and in what form, before the first session. A provider that cannot answer that clearly is telling you something.
Medical leave
Paid sick leave under the Employment Act requires certification that you are unfit for work by a medical practitioner registered under the Medical Registration Act. Nothing in that excludes mental health, and general practitioners in Singapore do issue medical certificates for anxiety, low mood and stress-related conditions.
The picture in Singapore
Employed residents in Singapore worked an average of 41.4 hours a week in 2025, down from 44.2 hours a decade earlier. Average hours are falling. That is not the same thing as pressure falling, and it says nothing at all about your job.
Anxiety and depression cost Singapore around S$15.7 billion a year, roughly 2.9 per cent of GDP, according to work by the Institute of Mental Health and Duke-NUS. Someone affected loses an average of 17.7 working days a year, and works at reduced capacity on many of the days they do turn up. If you are wondering whether this is a big enough problem to take seriously at work, that is the answer.
Where to get help
If the job is the problem, the honest order of operations is: change what can be changed at work, get support for yourself in parallel, and treat leaving as a real option rather than a failure. Most people try only the first and wait far too long on the third.
Free support does not depend on your employer offering anything. National mindline 1771 operates 24 hours by phone, on WhatsApp at 6669 1771, or at mindline.sg. Community Intervention Teams under the Agency for Integrated Care provide counselling at no cost and can be found through the wayfinding tool at aic.sg. Family Service Centres take walk-ins.
For employers: iWorkHealth is a free Ministry of Manpower and WSH Council tool for identifying psychosocial risk in your own organisation, and the WSH Council published a handbook on building a mentally healthy workplace on 13 October 2025. The Health Promotion Board’s Workplace Outreach Wellness programme closed on 28 February 2026; its resources moved to Healthy 365 and MindSG.
This page is information, not medical advice. It does not diagnose, treat, or replace an assessment by a qualified professional. If you are in crisis, call 995 or one of the helplines listed on this site.