A medical staff member takes care of a child patient hospitalised in HCM City. (Photo: VNA) The man, who declined to give his name, said he made thedecision in hopes of finding a new job with a better income.
He said he never wanted to mention the reasons why he quit because“it only makes me feel so depressed.”
While the salary was too low to secure his family’sliving conditions, the job also required him to work more than 10 hours a day,making him constantly tired, both physically and mentally.
“The work has been overloaded for years, especially during the twoyears of the COVID-19 pandemic,” he said.
Comparing his life to his friend’s life, he said his friend whowent to the same university but works for a private medical facility in thecity now has a more stable and comfortable life than him.
“I feel sorry for myself,” he said.
Both he and his wife had been working as nurses at a city-levelhospital for the past five years. Their total combined monthly incomewas around 10 million VND (410 USD), which is not enough for a familyof four to survive.
“Since the pandemic, the incomes gradually decreased to a levelthat we could not even survive,” he said. “Besides low income, we areunder serious stress because of too much overtime work.”
His wife was also desperate to quit. She more than oncewanted to quit but she never dared to do because of her children whowere young.
According to the city People’s Committee, low pay and benefits,low chance of promotion and high workload were cited as reasons why so manyofficials and government workers quit.
This issue has made the healthcare crisis even worse as thecity’s health sector is also facing a serious shortage of medicines andequipment along with a shortage of public medical staff.
Retaining workers a challenge
Huynh Thanh Nhan, Director of the municipal Department of Home Affairs,said the battle for skills has never been more challenging and the publicsector is now the most difficult market in which to attract and retaintalent.
The pay for workers in the public sector is low, whilebusinesses in the private sector offer attractive wages,remunerations, and benefits to their staff, attracting a large number ofhighly qualified personnel from the labour market.
The public sector’s work environment also demands high disciplineand demands workers to follow many regulations, he said.
Experts also said the public sector attracts thousands of newrecruits each year. The challenge, however, is retaining that talent.
HCM City authorities have proposed that the Ministry of HomeAffairs revamp its hiring methods and constantly cycle leaders throughmultiple departments to help them gain experience.
The city has also requested better unemployment benefits andencourages those who lack either capabilities or health to retire early.
In order to reduce the workload, the city has also suggested thegovernment allow more workers to be hired.
The city authorities said they would continue improving theirincomes, thereby nurturing their work motivation and encouraging theirdevotion.
Nearly 6,200 government workers in the HCM City quit in thefirst half of 2022, the highest number recorded in the last seven years.
The number of officials who quit in the first half was 2.4 times thatin the entire last year, while the number of government workers who quit was2.9 times that of 2021, according to the figures from the People’sCommittee.
A total of 676 officials and over 5,500 government workers quitduring the period.
The man who quit his job still has yet to find a new job. “I knowI can rely on hope only,” he said.
“If we did not have a house of our own in the city, my familywould not have been able to survive the two years of pandemic,” headded./.
VNA
