Are you working yourself to death?

Are you working yourself to death? Since the late 1970s, Japan has had a word to refer to people dying from spending too much time in the office - Karoshi. The literal translation is “death by overwork.”

Official figures put cases of Karoshi in the hundreds each year, counting heart attacks, strokes and suicides. But campaigners say the real figure is much higher.

A 2016 report examining Karoshi cases and their cause of death found that more than 20% of people in a survey of 10,000 Japanese workers said they worked at least 80 hours of overtime a month, often unpaid. 12% have employees breaking the 100 hours a month mark.

Those numbers are important; 80 hours overtime a month is regarded as the threshold above which you have an increased chance of dying. That’s 20 hours per week, 4 hours per day. On average, that’s a 12 hour work day which isn't uncommon in Australia either.

Japan's government has been under increasing pressure to act, but the challenge has been to break a decades-old work culture where it's frowned upon to leave before your colleagues or boss.

Solutions are not simple. Some of the government introduced measures have included “Premium Fridays”, encouraging employers to let their employees out early, at 3pm, on the last Friday of each month. However, with many Japanese businesses looking to hit sales targets at the end of the month; a shorter day has only made people busier.

Japan's government also want Japanese workers to take more holidays. Workers are entitled to 20 days leave a year but estimates are that about 35% don't take any of it.

In the local government offices in Toshima, a district of downtown Tokyo, they have resorted to turning the office lights off at 7pm in an effort to force people to go home.

Manager Hitoshi Ueno commented that "it's not just about cutting working hours. We want people to be more efficient and productive, so that everyone can protect and enjoy their spare time. We want to change the work environment in total."

Campaigners say these measures are piecemeal and fail to address the core problem: that young workers are dying because they are working too hard and for too long. The only solution they say is to put a legal limit on the overtime employees are permitted to work. The government proposed limiting average overtime to 60 hours a month, though businesses would be allowed to increase this to 100 hours during "busy periods" - well into the Karoshi red zone.

What can you do to prevent Karoshi in your business ?

1.   Be aware of the actual hours you and your employees are working each week. Regularly monitor payroll data and address any problems identified.

2.  Enforce annual leave being taken by yourself and your employees during every 12 month period. This also reduces the risk of fraud activity.

3.   Ensure that you have an independent third party EAP (Employee Assistance Program) service in place.

4.   Avoid unrealistic work expectations and unrealistic sales targets. Also keep an eye on your culture to ensure hero status is not being built around long work hours. Lead by example.

5.   Better planning. Ensure work flow is spread evenly across the year and not bottle necked around specific time points.

6.   Educate your employees about the very real health risk around overworking.

7.   Encourage employees to have regular health checks and provide work flexibility to allow employees to attend medical appointments.

Black Bull Performance Group helps boards be more effective, businesses more sustainable and creates personal change through emotional intelligence and mindset coaching. Contact us at [email protected] or at www.blackbullperformance.com