Humanitarian workers face numerous challenges when providing assistance to people affected by natural disasters, armed conflicts, and other crises, which often leads to burnout and psychological distress. This qualitative study investigates the interplay of factors that contribute to burnout among Malaysian employees of a refugee-focused humanitarian organization. Ten staff members participated in focus group discussions, which revealed five themes: positive and meaningful emotions; difficult and negative emotions; vicarious trauma, stress, and burnout; work environment, culture, and managerial policies; and structural and governmental stressors. The study emphasizes the need for improved support and resources for humanitarian workers, as well as enhanced organizational policies and practices to prevent and mitigate burnout. The findings suggest that culturally adapted interventions, such as Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), can help humanitarian workers address their unique psychological challenges. More research is needed to examine the issues present within humanitarian organizations using qualitative methods and adapt appropriate interventions to prevent the development of psychopathology in these settings.

This study aims to investigate what influences local workers over the age of 40 to work and stay employed in oil palm plantations. 414 individuals participated in a face-to-face interview that provided the study’s primary source of data. Exploratory Factor Analysis was used to analyse the given data. The study revealed that factors influencing local workers over the age of 40 years to leave or continue working in oil palm plantations can be classified as income factors, internal factors and external factors. The income factor was the most significant factor as the percentage variance explained by the factor was 26.792% and Cronbach Alpha was high at 0.870. Therefore, the study suggested that the oil palm plantation managements pay more attention to income elements such as basic salary, wage rate paid to the workers and allowance given to the workers since these elements contribute to the monthly total income received by the workers and in turn be able to attract more local workers to work and remain in the plantations.