The Problem Of Overwork In Different Countries

We all at some point in our lives sacrificed our physical, mental and/or emotional health to overwork ourselves. That is part of life. However, nowadays, people have difficulty interpreting “overwork”. We all know it is not good but at the same time it is glorifying. There is this mindset that people have that if they are not working, they are being lazy. The more hours people work, the more pride they feel in their efforts. It feels good to be admired and praised for working hard but sometimes people start crossing into accidentally forgetting to have a work-life balance.

According to a study by the American Sociological Review, 70% of American workers(1) struggle with finding time to devote to their lives outside work. Also, a survey done by EY shows that one-third of people have trouble managing their work-life balance (2). Companies around the world are facing increasing levels of market pressure and competition. If they want to survive and succeed, they need to become faster and better. To do so, companies introduce work-family initiatives in order to improve employees productivity but also recruitment and retention. However, due to the employees “overtime culture” and in particular the notion that productivity and commitment can be defined in terms of hours spent at the office, these initiatives may not be sufficient to improve employees’ work-life balance. Professionals usually gloat and exaggerate about how many hours they have worked in order to feel or seem more important. The majority of the population sees success achievable only through hard work and by extension, hours and effort. The rise of student expectations together with the increase in the student numbers and decline in the average unit of resource since the 1990s are some reasons that can help explaining the idea that people need to overwork themselves (3). This culture of extreme overwork, leads people to get burned out and stressed which take them to a point of both mental and physical health problems.

A government study done in Japan found that a quarter of workers logged more than 80 hours of overtime every month and that 1 in 5 workers are at risk of death by overwork. There is even a word for this in Japanese - Karoshi (overwork by death). It is legally recognized by the government and usually is marked by a heart attack, stoke or suicide due to stress. The nation’s work ethics dates back to what is referred to as Japan’s economic miracle which marked its incredible economic growth in the 1950’s. Thomas Looser, an associate professor at NYU, says that the widespread overwork in Japan started after World War II when the country switched its focus from strengthening its military to rebuilding its economy. “The prime minister says we´re gonna have income doubling and 100% employment and the idea then becomes instead of the military – emperor is your family, now the company is your family and you will do everything you can for your family. Inside Japan’s companies, the culture emphasizes the success of the company as a whole to be more important than any single individual. ” - Thomas Looser. However, as the economy grew, so did the rate of Karoshi. In the 1990s, Japan economics bubble burst, the country has experienced several recessions since, and the culture of overwork became even more of a problem. “Employment becomes much more intense, people are much more desperate, so they continue to work very hard for fewer jobs with less certainty. The discipline is there, the idea that you should be working and giving physically, mentally, everything that you’ve got”. - Thomas Looser

These cases of overwork generated widespread attention and renewed calls to change the long working hours. Both the government and companies are actively considering several initiatives to decrease the number of hours spent at the office, including making it mandatory to have at least five vacation days a year. Also, the government increased the number of annual public holidays to 16 and launched an initiative called Premium Fridays which encourage companies to allow their employees to leave at 3pm on the last Friday of the month. Yet, a government study found that less than 4% of employees in Japan actually leave early on Fridays. All these examples prove that despite all the initiatives done by the government and companies, a cultural challenge still looms. As mention before, since Japan’s culture emphasizes the group over the individual, no one wants to be the first one to leave the office. Karoshi is not only a Japanese problem. China and South Korea also reported deaths due to overwork, so much that the countries have their own words for it (Guolaosi and Gwarosa, respectively).