207 Hours Overtime: Japanese Man in Kobe Worked to Death
207 Hours Overtime: Japanese Man in Kobe Worked to Death
A medical resident worked 207 hours of overtime in a month. His case highlights Japan's continuing problem with karoshi - death by overwork.
A medical resident worked 207 hours of overtime in a month. His case highlights Japan's continuing problem with karoshi - death by overwork.
207 hours/month = 51.75 hours overtime per week, or a 92.75 hour workweek. Until recently, US residents worked those hours, too (it’s now technically capped at 80 hours, but there are exceptions.)
Medical training is toxic.
69During Covid I worked about 72-80 hours per week. It was awful. We were pulling guard on stockpiles of COVID vaccine since our president of our university was from Iran and he expected crazy right wing terrorism to try to destroy or steal them.
Money was incredible; the overtime was AWFUL. I single handedly think working that 6 months of overtime is now why I medically retired.
19Same here. I worked overtime 45 out of 52 weeks in 2020. Only to come out of the pandemic and still have hospitals trying to push too many patients on us, understaff us, supply chain shortages... And they wonder why so many healthcare professionals have burnt out and quit the field.
10
On June 5th this year, the Nishinomiya Labor Standards Inspection Office approved the family’s claim and officially recognized Shingo’s suicide as a work accident. Recognition of suicide as a work accident allows the surviving family to receive compensation and claim damages.
Konan Medical Center compensated the Takashima family by paying them the amount of money Shingo would have received for working 207 hours and 50 minutes of overtime in the one month prior to his death.
The "compensation" is his earned overtime back pay?? Is that it, or am I missing something?
60Overtime done in Japan is rarely paid.
3I was expecting some sort of widow's pension or big payout.
3So generous.
1
This has been going on for so long that it even found its way into pop-culture entertainment like Anime. Every other Isekai-Anime starts with the protagonist being worked to death by an abusive (dark) company. Its almost like a common disease in japan.
34The plotline to stardew valley comes to mind.
6Zom 100 as well
2
The key here is medical resident. They're abused in every country and forced sleep on call in the hospital and pay is shit compared to attendings.
32This shit right here. We need to completely overhaul the medical residency system. Corporations are literally killing these workers for profit and the hazing culture of medicine continues to ignore that fact.
23Yeah, let's not forget that the residency system was designed by someone who took massive amounts of cocaine....and back then the concentration of work was not nearly as bad....
3
Damn, I work around 36-40 hours a week, and that's enough for me. I work to live, I don't live to work.
16Managers in the US must be foaming at the mouth.
9Kinda sounded like the protagonist from the pharmacist isekai
4Ahh, Karoshi (search it on the web). If a language has a word for it, it's nothing special.
4Man and here I am complaining of working 3AM + weekends.
3When I started my company, we had a recession a year in. I worked 80 hour weeks for about 6 years and my wife not much less but she tapered off in 4. Twelve hour days Monday to Saturday and a 8 hour day on Sunday. Occasionally I took a day off and did do 2 week holidays. Did another 60 hour weeks for about ten years after. That is not that uncommon as a new business owner mind you.
The work is not that hard but if people are dying, I suspect it has much more to do with stress.
-1So idk who that is but I mean okay but medical residents don’t get 2-week vacations, ever. They don’t get to control what hours they run and end up with shifts so long that they’re using stimulants just to attend said shifts without passing out. Apples and flapjacks, you’re comparing.
1