Japanese woman dies from overwork

[RayDunzl]

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/woman-japan-dies-overwork-common-death-article-1.3542948

159 hours overtime in a month...

"In response to her death, Japan's Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe, and the government have proposed a monthly overtime cap at 100 hours and penalties for companies who contribute to Japan's workplace culture of overworking to prove dedication."

I had the opportunity to observe "overworking" at NEC in Japan.

There are two main classes of workers - hired help - secretaries, food workers, janitors, warehouse, truckers and so forth, that work 8-5 and leave. Then there are the "dedicated" folks, who actually work for the company, and expect to be there forever, and hope to be promoted someday (so they can go home earlier).

Root Cause:

Rule #1 You don't go home before your boss does.
Rule #2 You don't go home before your boss does.

You might think, well, ok, that's not unreasonable. He takes off, I'll head out next.

But. Consider the "conditions" of "going home".

Most people take the train. You don't want to leave the office 5 minutes after your boss, you might bump into him at the train station. That would not be so good. It would worry you. Trains ran on about a 15 minute cycle at Tennodai Station.

Ok, I'll leave 15 minutes later.

Nope. Boss might walk slow, or talk to someone along the way, so you better skip one train just in case.

So you time your departure so for sure he will be gone from the station before you get there. Figure about 1/2 hour. (if he sees you at the station then, it's not a problem, he's being extra slow. Maybe he stopped for some yakitory and a beer.)

Head Dude would leave about 6pm - Cowboy Kondo, we called him (he'd been the head Japanese in Dallas for a few years)... Little Big Man...
Major Division Heads - 6:30
Division Managers - 7:00
Department Heads - 7:30
Managers - 8:00
Supervisors - 8:30
Engineers/Techs - 9:00pm (or later... 9pm was the "optimistic" time)

From what I saw, there wasn't a whole lot of "work" being done after hours, mostly just a lot of hanging around.

And I don't think those folks were getting overtime, though. It was just "the culture".

Except Wednesdays. Everyone is free to leave early, and go party.

I liked Wednesdays.

Wednesdays were good.

 

[amirm]

All true. The women working at Sony would tell me that their boss would just sit there reading books and such and they had to endure that until he went home and they could then do the same.

And when you live 1:30 to 2:00 hours away, it kind of doesn't make sense to even go home as you have to turn around and come back to work a few hours later. Hence the reason many engineers would sleep on chairs!

This said, they have become more westernized and this kind of work culture has softened a bunch. They blame American companies' offices there for the change!

 

[DonH56]

Hmmm... The last couple of years I had a lot of 60 - 70 hour workweeks, and a fair number of 80+ wrapped around schedules and after some of our group was laid off. I don't think I have ever recovered, honestly; it's much harder now than when I did it even just 10 years ago. Also, then it tended to be a short stretch, maybe a month or six weeks, then back to normal. For the better part of two years it was almost continuous. I had five weekends off in 2016. Sad thing is it is not that unusual these days of staff cuts and tightened schedules. More and more seems to be for the young without families.

 

[NorthSky]

This is slavery in the modern robot world, inhuman.
It happens not only in Japon. ...French for 'Japan'.

 

[RayDunzl]

 

[NorthSky]

Ray, advanced companies towards a better future should hire you as the chief intendent of the communication department for global contracts, and pay you high income...like in the six figures annually, with all expenses paid plus utilities @ home. ...Room service, lodging, board, limos and jet planes.