Suicidal positions(2)

Stressed out

These suicides of officials may reflect the deepening efforts to combat corruption and be a result of reforms to strengthen accountability, said Qi.

Wang Wei, a Guangdong-based government publicity officer, told the Global Times that the spread of online media and social networking, and the resulting reduction in privacy, has become a sword of Damocles for every civil servant, with increasingly intense public supervision.

"The rising awareness of legal rights protection also makes people more protective of their rights and interests. We are dealing with more conflicts and controversies every day, especially on issues regarding urban planning and land exploitation. We must also work to maintain social stability," said an anonymous grass-roots Party chief in Anhui Province.

"We are the same as people working in other industries," Wang and other officials emphasized. "We all serve our customers - in our case, the public," Wang added. "We all bear zero tolerance to any damage to our customers. People with a greater sense of responsibility are prone to feeling anxious."

While Wang is overloaded with meetings and reports, Lao Niu (pseudonym), a department head in the justice authorities in Shandong Province, often works overtime because his department is understaffed.

He told the Global Times that officials are often overworked due to frivolous requirements, such as organizing meetings or receptions of higher level officials, which greatly contributes to feelings of exhaustion and emptiness among low-ranking officials.

The opaque promotion system also creates anxiety and uncertainty among officials. Candidates are not only judged by their working abilities - the opinions of higher level leaders and peers are also collected but often these comments are made behind closed doors.

"It is a failure when it makes people stray away from honing their skills. Many have to work hard to please their superiors and fellow employees to get a promotion, which is the only way for higher payment," Lao said.

Qi also called for more transparency in the promotion process. The government should disclose timely information both internally and to the public to curb suicides of officials.

Psychological struggles

Of the 23 reported suicides of officials, depression ranked among the top health issues they had been suffering, which then led to their deaths.

The China Human Resource Development Network said that 29.3 percent of civil servants in China were found to have some degree of psychological problems and about 10 percent of the psychological patients are working with government bodies.

Wang complained that little effective psychological guidance has been offered inside the system and "talking with higher officials" is unlikely to alleviate the pressure but to increase it.

"I think a third-party organization unrelated to work is needed to care for our psychological status, where there is no leader-member relationship," Wang suggested.

The Institute of Psychology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences set up a hot line for psychological services in 2012, targeting employees with government organs. However, the services have been underused and most patients have kept their involvement with it secret, the Southern Weekly reported.

Many officials worry that their psychological problems may affect their career once they are discovered by others, amid the common mind-set in China that consultation with a psychologist is similar to being diagnosed with some kind of serious psychological problem.

Sun Zhongzhu, a psychologist, has previously explained that Chinese officials pay a lot of attention to their image and seldom reveal their emotions to the outside world, including psychologists. They also lack avenues to vent unhealthy emotions, according to cntheory.com.