Death By Overworking?
The Story.
After much research and reading several articles trying to find something that would stand out to me, I came across an article, written by Adele Peters, that completely shocked me. The article describes the average work day for men in Japan. The Japanese "salaryman" is said to work approximately 13 hours every day with no breaks.
One Tokyo Salary man had documented his average work week in a video Peters included in the article. In a typical week, this salary man had worked 78 hours with only 35 hours of sleep. This long, intense working lifestyle is actually leading to karoshi, also known as "death by overwork."
There have been documented incidents where people are working these long and strenuous hours, which in some cases have led to death. The article includes one example, where "Mr. Kanameda, who worked as many as 110 hours every week at a snack food company, and died at 34." Many of these issues have not only stemmed from the length of time these workers spend at their job, but the intensity their employers enforce leaving little to no downtime for relaxation.
The Japanese government has considered passing a law that would give workers a five day mandatory vacation each year. The idea behind this mandatory vacation is to give workers a period of rest for their bodies, in hopes of relieving some of the stress built up in these incredibly intense working lifestyles.
One Tokyo Salary man had documented his average work week in a video Peters included in the article. In a typical week, this salary man had worked 78 hours with only 35 hours of sleep. This long, intense working lifestyle is actually leading to karoshi, also known as "death by overwork."
There have been documented incidents where people are working these long and strenuous hours, which in some cases have led to death. The article includes one example, where "Mr. Kanameda, who worked as many as 110 hours every week at a snack food company, and died at 34." Many of these issues have not only stemmed from the length of time these workers spend at their job, but the intensity their employers enforce leaving little to no downtime for relaxation.
The Japanese government has considered passing a law that would give workers a five day mandatory vacation each year. The idea behind this mandatory vacation is to give workers a period of rest for their bodies, in hopes of relieving some of the stress built up in these incredibly intense working lifestyles.
My View.
Not until reading this article had I realized how stressful the typical work week is for a Japanese salary man. Peters also describes how the workers in the U.S. typically work even more hours in a day than that of the Japanese. I think that not only should these workers be forced to take vacation days, but it should be illegal to have them working as many hours a week as they do.
Work has become this essential part of peoples' lives and is beginning to take over every aspect of it. People were not born to work these ridiculous hours each week with little to no time left for sleeping, eating, and socializing. The human body needs time to recalibrate and relax between strenuous hours at work.
It should not have taken this long for laws to be passed making mandatory vacations when there are people dying from working too much. Our bodies aren't equipped to work as much as we do. I think this article is an eye-opener to those who were not aware of the stress workers all around the world are putting on their bodies.
Working too much is extremely unhealthy for us because our bodies were not made to be on our feet for hours on end every day. I believe that there should be laws being passed, not only in Japan, but in every country making mandatory vacations for workers to allow their bodies to recoup and relax.
Work has become this essential part of peoples' lives and is beginning to take over every aspect of it. People were not born to work these ridiculous hours each week with little to no time left for sleeping, eating, and socializing. The human body needs time to recalibrate and relax between strenuous hours at work.
It should not have taken this long for laws to be passed making mandatory vacations when there are people dying from working too much. Our bodies aren't equipped to work as much as we do. I think this article is an eye-opener to those who were not aware of the stress workers all around the world are putting on their bodies.
Working too much is extremely unhealthy for us because our bodies were not made to be on our feet for hours on end every day. I believe that there should be laws being passed, not only in Japan, but in every country making mandatory vacations for workers to allow their bodies to recoup and relax.