Public speaking was ranked sixth by a survey of workplace phobias in Singapore

On July 24th the JobsCentral Community had a post by Jonathan Tay titled Survey Results: Tales of the night (shift). Singapore workers share ghostly encounters at work. It was timed to precede the month-long Hungry Ghost Festival, which began on August 7th. That online survey was done from May 22nd to June 23rd of 2013 and covered 3,568 workers in Singapore aged 16 and over.

Most of it was about supernatural encounters, but it also discussed real workplace phobias, as shown above. (Click on the bar chart for a larger, clearer view).The top five most common phobias were not meeting performance goals/targets (51.1%), followed by offending the boss (46.3%), missing deadlines (41.8%), offending colleagues (31.5%), and having to make crucial decisions (22.9%). Public speaking/presentation (21.8%) was sixth, which contradicts the frequent claim that it universally is the number one phobia.

Almost two-thirds (65.1%) of the unexplained events involved seeing ghostly figures or shadows. Others in the top five included equipment starting to operate on its own (12.3%), unexplained shifting of items (8.5%), doors opening or shutting on their own (5.2%), and possessed co-workers (3.3%). 

Almost a third (32.5%) of the unexplained events took place in washrooms. Others in the top five included meeting rooms (15.1%), corners or storerooms (tied for 7.9%), and corridors, stairways, or a particular workstation (a three way tie for 7.1% each).