Karōshi – no, it’s not the latest trendy food fad

By Stacie Maier • September 23, 2009 • Filed in: Science and other fun stuff

I’m listening to the radio right now, and the DJ just took a request from a guy who is working his 30th straight 14-hour night shift. When do you sleep? How do you get your vitamin D? Can that possibly be worth it? (Should you be on True Blood…) Poor guy – who ever you are, come and see me! I can save you. (But I still don’t appreciate you making me listen to Low by Cracker…seriously buddy, get some taste in music)

That poor, obviously overworked soul made me think of one of my very favorite Japanese words: Karōshi.

So, what is is Karōshi? Literally translated from the Japanese, Karōshi means ‘death from overwork’.

Isn’t that a great word? (yes, it’s a terrible phenomenon, but isn’t that a great word?)

I won’t reiterate the very fascinating Wikipedia article for you (although it is pretty fascinating and I would highly recommend you reading it), but the first case of Karōshi in Japan was reported in 1969 when a 29 year old died from a stroke on the job. Twenty-nine years old!!!

There is an incredibly strong work ethic inherent in Japanese culture. Once people literally started dropping dead from years upon years of constant unpaid overtime, some companies began limiting the amount of overtime allowed and implementing other measures to help improve the health of employees.

So what do you think the English word is going to be? Because might be needing one soon, and ‘death from overwork’, while accurate, is not that catchy.

Don’t believe me? According to a study by Take Back Your Time, an American not-for-profit agency dedicated to advocating for healthier workplace practices:

Americans are taking fewer (and shorter) vacations.
Last year, only 14% of American workers took two weeks or more for vacation.
Men who don’t take regular vacations are 32% more likely to die of heart attacks, and 21% more likely to die early of all causes. Women have 50% more risk of heart attack.

(Please note, I directly stole borrowed the above points verbatim from the fabulous Cali & Jodi, whom I shall discuss in further detail at a later date.)

(Man, am I ever bracket-happy tonight! Sorry.)

I don’t know if the Canadian stats are equivalent, but I would imagine that we are not as bad off, because we do have mandated minimum vacation. However – there seems to be quite the trend in banking out vacation, receiving vacation pay in lieu, or people just flat out working through their vacation.

At the very least, most of us who are Crackberried will check in…just here and there, right…maybe answer an email here and there…or just make that one little call?

People, what’s wrong with you??

Giving our brains a little time to completely escape the stresses of work and completely rest, even if only for a few weeks a year, is VITAL to our psychological as well as physical health.

We all (meaning employers and employees) need to understand that not taking adequate vacation time is actually significantly decreasing productivity. We all want to appear dedicated to our jobs. We all want to make sure that nothing goes wrong while we’re out of the office. We all get suck doing a little bit of overtime sometimes. BUT, if it could literally mean loosing years of your life, is it really worth it?

Of the many, many things wrong with the current workplace system – this is one of the most endemic, and is going to be one of the hardest to change. But it really, really should.

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