Many employees all over the world struggle with constant burnout, anxiety and exhaustion. However, employees in Vietnam show a totally different trend.
Instead of letting work pressures dampen their mood, they maintain a particularly calm and positive attitude towards life. Latest Gallup State of the Global Workplace 2026 report confirms this.
Data shows that Vietnam has the bottom levels of workplace stress and the best optimism in Southeast Asia.
Why the Vietnamese labor force is ‘thriving’
The major reason for low stress in Vietnam is the extremely high percentage of “thriving” employees. Gallup measures this psychological indicator by combining how positively an individual feels about their current life situation with how optimistic they’re about their future in the following five years.
In Vietnam, as many as 59 percent of employees are considered prosperous. It reflects an incredible sense of well-being that completely outperforms other leading economies in Southeast Asia reminiscent of Thailand (41 percent) and Singapore (40 percent).
This deep-seated sense of life satisfaction directly serves as an emotional buffer, effectively protecting Vietnamese employees from common on a regular basis anxieties.
Low stress
While roughly 40 percent of employees worldwide report experiencing severe workplace stress every day, in Vietnam the figure is incredibly low at just 13 percent. This number is the bottom in Southeast Asia.
In hindsight, while 4 out of ten employees all over the world face every day stress, just one in ten Vietnamese employees face the identical ordeal. Beyond minimal stress, Gallup’s regional data shows that Vietnamese employees in Southeast Asia are the least prone to experience every day negative emotions.
Gallup highlights the enviable state of mental well-being, with only 5 percent of employees reporting every day anger, 6 percent feeling every day sadness, and just 5 percent experiencing loneliness every day. These statistics represent the bottom rates of negative every day emotions in the complete regional bloc, making Vietnam a real benchmark for emotional stability.
A singular paradox
But though Vietnamese employees enjoy exceptionally high levels of non-public happiness and emotional health, the report highlights a wierd contrast in work engagement. In Vietnam, only 9 percent of employees feel fully “engaged” of their work.
This implies that only a number of employees experience deep psychological and emotional commitment to their employers. Since the broader average in Southeast Asia for workplace engagement is 25 percent, this low number shows a remarkable capability for division amongst Vietnamese employees.
They don’t allow their skilled roles or skilled status to dictate their mental state. Instead, they effectively draw their primary energy, peace and achievement from their families, local communities and private time outside of working hours.
Moreover, this optimism makes employees very confident in regards to the country’s economic future. A major 78 percent of Vietnamese employees strongly consider that now could be an excellent time to seek out a brand new job, well above the worldwide average of 52 percent.
High life satisfaction and low stress levels within the population create a really strong foundation for any country. Since residents are already naturally joyful and optimistic, corporations in Vietnam have a novel advantage. If corporations improve their management and improve day-to-day operations, they’ll easily transform joyful employees into productivity powerhouses.
