Skylark outlet manager dies from overwork

Friday 18th July, 08:06 AM JST

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thepro at 10:49 PM JST - 18th July

Sometimes when I've finished my work for the day early and my boss knows it I wait to see if she will say, 'Well, you can go home then a little earlier' but she never does, so I end up just sitting there staring into space. For them work equals the amount of time spent in the office, not the things that you do there.
usaexpat at 11:50 PM JST - 18th July

I work for myself so when I sccomplish what I need to do for any given day I leave. I was a Senior Account Manager back in the states (fancy word for salesman who handles the larger accounts) and worked the same way. I could never buy into the Japanese work ethic. If you are producing results than who gives a damn how many hours you put in. It's the culture that's screwed up on this one. The focus is on shows of "loyalty and dedication" rather than actual job performance.
motytrah at 11:53 PM JST - 18th July

Are there proper unions in Japan? Does this country have any history of protesting employer demands?

There are a few. Airlines all have unions. They'll go on strike every now and then based on work rules and pay. Though usually 1 day strikes, and never inconveniencing international flights.

General OT Observations

I think the big problem is there is a huge stigma about being unemployed. Just look at the stories that are posted here. The fact that someone is employed or not is one of the first things listed in the story. I think people are under big pressure to stay employed.

Overall, I have to agree with some of the observations about efficiently. There are a lot of service jobs in Japan that are done by 2-3 people that in the west would be done by one person and a computer in the west. I personally think the Japanese economy is a giant "Jobs program" in some respect. Companies are encouraged to hire a lot of people in low level jobs.

At the same time, when a companies are in competitive markets and want to be lean and efficient, they have no problem doing it.
thepro at 11:55 PM JST - 18th July

Yeah, down at the convenience store on the corner they often have 5 people working at once. I run into one of them in every aisle.
shugotokumaru at 01:05 AM JST - 19th July

A lot of people are mentioning unions, but here's where the U.S. shares some blame. The Cold War was not a good time for organized labor, and GHQ made sure that labor unions wouldn't get nearly as strong in Japan as they were in the States, to keep as much communist influence out of Japan as possible.

So while unions technically exist in a lot of big companies here, they aren't adversarial enough with management to make them an effective advocate for the working man.

Also, here's an interesting study involving Japanese overtime reported in Occupational Medicine.

http://occmed.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/reprint/54/1/52.pdf

From the results: "Low productivity was closely linked to overtime worked".
Patrick Smash at 01:22 AM JST - 19th July

By law no one has to work more than a 40-hour week. You get entire companies full of people being abused, and even though 99% of them feel that, not one of them will send a quick note to Labor Standards. That's their problem.

Japanese usually work long, but not hard. We all know it. They sit around forever, but nothing happens. Meetings all day where they talk about work, and never do any. And the truth is they can nearly all leave if they want, but they won't. Not my battle in my company, and I won't help any of these spineless fools fight it.

truth is I can do 5 times the work my Japanese coworkers do in half the time. Nothing happens because the mindset is to sit around all day and do sweet fa, and get increasingly tired through lack of sleep and lack of quality time. Fine, but I'm not doing the old work to the rate of the slowest and try to look like you're suffering for Japan bollocks.
rajakumar at 04:36 AM JST - 19th July

Skylark reputation going down with these type of news.
Youdontknow at 09:04 AM JST - 19th July

The Japanese do NOT work hard than anywhere else in the world. They work longer hours. There is a difference.

In the school system they are not taught to think freely. Instead, the answers are given to them for every question by the teacher, leaving no room for self development. This in turn leads to the 'follow like a sheep' mentality, and always without questioning why a leader is doing what he is doing.

Once Japanese workers realise they are being conned of their time and lives, then this kind of practice of working people to death can be stopped once and for all.
Jandals at 10:17 AM JST - 19th July

Companies are not the problem. The Ministry Of Education is.
westurn at 11:40 AM JST - 19th July

Worked to death for Japan Inc. ! What an honorable way to die.
Blue_Tiger at 03:13 PM JST - 19th July

This is really too bad. I worked at Seven-Eleven when I was in college, and as other people in here have posted, we had shift managers (though, the night shift, when I worked, I was technically the manager, seeign I was the only one there from 10pm-7am). The store manager did show up and did work the roughest shifts, but when it was time to leave, tyhe store manager left.

This situation is really tragic....
dw at 10:59 PM JST - 19th July

It is a Japan thing, not just limited to Japanese Companies. I agree that a lot of Japanese employees aren't exactly working at 100% all the time that they are "working", however for the non-Japanese I've been working with, they are, and why ? Simply because the boss 'silently' demands it. Get up at 7am and come home at 1am ... breakfast, lunch & dinner included in those times ?
candyapple at 11:01 AM JST - 20th July

I thought the Japanese took naps at work and it was encouraged. I am sure I saw a documentary on this. I thought it was great to get a recharged mind and body to perform better.
Orangeporange at 08:18 PM JST - 20th July

Haven't these companies ever heard of "shift managers"? Why would one manager have to stay on board from dawn till dusk? I just don't get it!
sf2k at 03:02 AM JST - 23rd July

workers have to organize to get a real 40 hour work week. It's not going to come from business, never has. We forget in the West that we owe much of our working style (even though it's eroding) to earlier effort in the labour movement. I've seen how useless work is in Japan, and now we see how useless Japan is to it's workers.

Japanese need to organize. Is the making of a union illegal? Because if the argument is 'I don't want to cause trouble' then we have to accept karoshi.

Typical work day: go to work 9am-ish lunch 12 or 1pm back to work until 5pm cleanup tasks and we're out by 6pm.

actual time in office, less than 7 hours per day. We live in big houses/apartments compared to Japanese even if we take home less pay, have families that we see everyday (or at least often) and karoshi is rare. Admittedly this is an ideal, but the comparison can't be more stark.

what are japanese working for again? I guess it's madness. This issue always makes me sad.