Working yourself to death, literally

What is your strategy for not working yourself to death?

911 Repair: It’s time to look back on the year to identify the workplace911 person of the year. We search worldwide for nominees, and some years it can be a very tough call. But not this year.

Meet our person of the year, Kenichi Uchino. Unfortunately Mr. Uchino can’t accept the award because he died five years ago. But the result of his death changed the dialogue about work throughout Japan and in many other countries.

If you’ve ever seen a World War II movie, chances are that you’ve heard of Hari-Kari and Kamikaze. You’ve probably not heard of “karoshi,” which is the Japanese term for death from overwork.

We’re not quoting Mr. Uchino’s personal physician or union. No, this case of karoshi was acknowledged by a court in Central Japan. They awarded his widow worker’s compensation benefits. Furthermore, the Japanese government admits 147 cases of death from overwork last year, with some experts placing the number in the thousands.

The Japanese workers are some of the hardest working in the world, totaling 1,842 hours a year. That’s the equivalent of sitting through 3,684 episodes of Barney or 921 corporate safety lectures.

Mr. Uchino routinely put in 80 hours of overtime per month for at least six months before his death. He was a middle manager in charge of quality control when he collapsed and died at work at age 30. My heart goes out to his young family for their loss.

But the Japanese are slackers compared to another industrialized nation-it’s us, as in the U.S.A. If you thought the Japanese worked longer hours, you are so last decade. In the mid-1990s we passed them to become the hardest working country on the planet.

We worked 1,979 hours. That is three and a half more weeks than the Japanese. We’re talking almost a month more of work each year. Almost a year more at work each decade.

The sheer number of hours worked doesn’t capture the problem. Stress, heart attacks, strokes and infertility. Yes, infertility. The problem has gotten so bad in Japan that the government is considering decreasing working hours for public servants in order to coax workers into having more babies. Overwork costs all of us.

In the U.S. we have terms for working long hours-burned out, slammed and overwhelmed. We also have federal and state departments of labor, Human Resources departments and lawyers for workplace injuries. Thousands and thousands of employment lawyers ready to lunge on those claims like a hungry dog on a piece of raw meat.

But we haven’t reached the place where U.S. courts have declared karoshi and put their money where there decision was. Yet.

But the clues were always right under our noses. Have you ever thought about how much of the language about work revolves around death-deadline, dying to get a job, killing time, drop dead date, etc. The time is right for a revolt against ridiculous overwork. Hopefully Mr. Uchino’s death will bring to live a movement toward more reasonable hours at work.

Thought for the Week

“A wise man knows everything, a shrewd one everybody.” Anonymous

Bob Rosner and Sherrie Campbell author the nationally syndicated workplace911 column weekly. Bob’s a best-selling author and award-winning journalist who has responded to over 50,000 emails from employees, bosses and entrepreneurs. Sherrie’s a relationship expert and award-winning comedian who has offered quick, intuitive and humorous responses to over 30,000 people. He’s been called “Dilbert, with a solution.” She’s the counselor with a kick. Together they’ve turned rants into raves via TV, radio, print and live on their website at workplace911.com.