Officials say: Toyota Car Engineer Died of Overwork

There is an effort in Japan to cut down on deaths from overwork, known as "karoshi." Such deaths have steadily increased since the Health Ministry first recognized the phenomenon in 1987.

Jeebus - what's wrong with these people? I hate to think of all the bad engineering that's coming from designers working 60 hours a week for months at a time. Not to mention the toll on the families. This is one time when I think the French have the right idea.

I agree with you. Many executives have heart problems because of job stress.

In my job I have some eventual tasks that required a lot of hours: my personal records are 28 hours non stop and 120 hours in a week. Fortunately, even I had some pressure, I was working in what I like and the stress was less. Later on I took the corresponding resting time to recover and to compensate my family, but I'm alive too (I think)

High stress, even for short time can produce a variety of detrimental health effects.

Kind regards

Well if we aren't going to build the best cars in the world somebody has too!

But seriously, that is really too bad. I put in 40-42hr weeks, and put myself, family, and toys numero uno. I suppose it all might change if a big "potential" bonus might be flashed in my face.

I would bet that this mans diet resembled that of a more modern Japan.

I had a boss who was a tyrant, we had 110% turnover in the space of a year, at least one case was due to stress induced medical problems. I had physical and emotional problems that were so severe that I would break into crying jags because I was afraid that I was going to get into trouble again for something unexpected.

He once held a meeting with people from several sections, at the start of the meeting he indicated that the purpose of the meeting was to chew me out. Everyone else left.

I was forbidden to talk to anyone above him, even our secretary was not allowed to deliver reports to the Executive Directors office, our boss did that.

One day he said that we should make a certain recommendation to the Executive Director regarding XYZ, when I indicated that the EXEC Dir had already told me what he thought about XYZ, I was chastised severely for an act of disloyalty. As if I was to ignore a person three notches above me on the pay grid when he stopped me in the hall.

I once wrote a 35 page report, after he made me go through 75 drafts, I took my name off it and put his on.

He made sure that we all understood that the section goal was to get him promoted.

Eventually he left for another job and the same effects were experienced there. The stress of work, often unnecessary, can have destructive effects on the staff and their families. When he did leave they had to force people to attend his farewell party. The new manager also passed a rule that we couldn't use his predecessors name, or we were to refer to hem as the nameless one or someone who shall remain nameless. Then people started to heal

I still hold some resentment for those people who saw the problem but did nothing about it.

I have to also wonder if the stress and fatigue he had to have been suffering under affected his capability as an engineer? I've put in some stupid long hours, but not like that!

I work 1 full time job and 4 part time jobs. I love all of them and it provides a good living. My family is given first priority then the part time work. I have been doing this for 20 years and still hear to tell about it. The key is attitude and a close watch on mental health with lots of exercise. Did I mention that I only sleep 4 hours a night 7 days a week.

The hours of activity doing work with your hands is not a problem, as stated by the Navy man. But long hours of mental work, under pressure to produce, is very stressful. The Japanese should demand an end to anything beyond 60 hours. They don't need a law against it, but a law should protect those who refuse to work excessive overtime. It would be OK if the employer was required to put requests for overtime hours in writing and the employee would have to sign a copy agreeing to it or refusing it and could not be fired for refusing.