Business advice

We have all met work alcoholics at some point in our lives. We all know that lawyers work an awful amount of hours. They spend daytime in court and most of the night doing the research for what happened in court. No one has found a way to get around that issue.

Then, there are doctors who work non stop. Why someone invented the system for them working for several days in a row is beyond me. I certainly wouldn’t want an exhausted one treating me.

I have a friend who tutored California Toyota employees in English. From his conversations with them, he quickly learned that they barely ever went home. They had to make it to their next extravagant vacation, paid by the company, of course.

Well, it seems that in Japan, Toyota and other similar corporations take this to a new level. They overwork (they call it ‘free overtime) their employees to the extent they are dropping dead. This is happening so frequently, they now have a name for it: karoshi, which literally means “death by overwork.” It was recognized as a legal cause of death in the 1980s.

If the court finds in a family’s favor, the surviving members may receive a compensation of $20,000 a year from the government and sometimes up to $1M from the company involved. This is all discussed in a recent “Economist” article.

The article cites an example of a 30-year-old Toyota employee who dropped dead at work at 4 a.m. The man had worked 80 hours of overtime for the prior six months. He had recently commented to his wife that he was the happiest when he had time to rest. He left two children, aged three and one.

This is a travesty that is being played out at our point in corporate history. Workers are walking voluntarily to corporate slaughter. Those yearning to be partners in their law firms go along with the tradition. You don’t seeing anyone volunteering to stand up and say ‘we are going to do it different here.’

Free overtime has been imposed on salaried workers in this country for a very long time. Many employees felt as if they had gained status when they were no longer an hourly employee. It didn’t hit them until it was too late that the company now had the ability to call them into work anytime there was an emergency or something extra needed completing. My youngest son dealt with the salaried employee situation in a way that makes me stand up and shout. After having received general manager status in a very big fast food chain, he quickly tired of having to work additional hours for no extra money. Luckily, this company had a tuition reimbursement program. He had a goal for another profession. He stayed working for the ‘man’ long enough for them to pay for his two year college degree and quickly left thereafter.

Now, we need some publicity on this craziness in this country. In order for that to happen, someone has to have the guts to stand up and say no more.

A little reality check will also help. It used to be an honorable thing to be a loyal employee to any company, long hours or not. No sacrifice was too great for the ‘job.’ Companies are no longer loyal to their employees and are quick with the layoffs and downsizing.

In our day and age, the only thing extreme loyalty and hard work for a company is likely to get you is an early death.

For more examples of my work: www.bellbusinessreport.com

Laura Bell
writer@well.com

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