Is your work killing you?

CSR Asia
Vol.6 Week 3
20/01/2010
by Jimmy Huen jhuen@csr-asia.com

Suicide from overwork is probably a little addressed issue in most businesses. But in many parts of Asia where there are high concentrations of economic activities, the problem of working long hours has created enormous stress for the working population, which contributes to depression and a host of mental disorders. Wincy Chan of the HKJC Centre for Suicide Research and Prevention, The University of Hong Kong, has said, “There is a strong link between depression and suicide. As many as 80% of people who have killed or have attempted to kill themselves have suffered from depression.” Suicide, mental wellbeing and more broadly, work-life balance issues are worth incorporating into a company’s CSR programme therefore.

Japan has one of the highest suicide rates in the world. There have been more than 30,000 suicides every year since 1998. In 2007, five times more people killed themselves than died in traffic accidents.

"Karoshi", or death by overwork, is a phenomenon in which workers suddenly die because of physical ailment such as heart attack and stroke induced by accumulated stress. "Karojisatsu", or suicide by overwork, is another phenomenon induced by extraordinarily stressful work situations. In 2007, more than 2,200 Japanese committed suicide due to work conditions.

Japanese workers have the highest average working hours in the world. A recent survey conducted by the Japanese Trade Union Confederation found that one in 30 male workers in their early 30s worked over 3,000 hours a year. This works out at over 58 hours a week, which the government considers a level that threatens health.

The problem can be attributed to a number of reasons, particularly the Japanese work philosophy. In the workplace, Japanese are expected to have a good cooperative attitude by willingly and sincerely trying to work and assist others. One way to achieve this is to willingly take more work than is stated in one’s job description. The more he extends the boundary of his work for others, the higher he is evaluated at his workplace.

As a developed country, Japanese workers are supposedly protected by the labour law which stipulates basic working hours and additional pay for overtime work. But the actual number of hours worked could be far greater than what is seen in the official statistics. The hidden working hours is called “service overtime”, which is overtime labour without pay and is not recorded officially. Employees with a higher level of discretionary powers do not necessarily have less workload. Many managers would choose to work longer hours due to this work ethic, and suffer from stress as a result of a performance-based evaluation system, which was introduced in recent years in opposition to the traditional seniority-based salary system.

Suicide by overwork in other Asian countries may not be as serious as in Japan. But many Asians do suffer from long working hours. In Cambodia, where the garment industry is booming with an estimate of over 355,000 garment factory workers, the problem of excessive overtime work is rampant. Cambodian law stipulates that overtime work should be voluntary and limited to only two hours per day. However, as a 2006 ILO report revealed, of 44 factories inspected, just over half ensured that overtime was voluntary while the rest made it compulsory. Workers commonly voiced complaints of being forced to work on Sundays or public holidays and receiving threats from employers that their declining one day of overtime work would result in never being offered overtime work again. As a result, even pregnant or sick women find it difficult to refuse overtime work in the garment industry. It is not difficult to imagine similar situations in other developing Asian nations, such as China, where labour laws are often not strictly enforced.

As the “city that never sleeps”, Hong Kong is famous for not just its night activities but also its super long working hours, which is only second to Seoul among all Asian cities. The phenomenon extends across different sectors, affecting the lives of many. A normal work day for some of my friends in the accounting/auditing profession would be to start at 9am and work until 9pm. It is highly common for them carry on until midnight and beyond when it is peak season, and return to the office at the official time the next morning. Many people are afraid to leave the office on time and before their bosses do, as that would imply that you are not working hard enough. Although many would condemn this unhealthy culture privately, people are often afraid to go against the norm or fight for their rights.

The accompanying problems with excessive working hours are not just deaths by overwork, but also deterioration of both physical and mental health, poor family life, unstable relationships and a lack of personal development, all of which are compelling reasons for companies to address the issue. If our society has an unhealthy workforce, productivity would be low, let alone a lack of motivation to perform well. At a time where the Generation Y is emerging, the imperative for addressing work-life balance is even greater. Numerous research studies have shown that members of Gen Y would consider leaving their current employers for better work-life balance.

In recent years, there has been growing interest in the concept of a healthy work-life balance. In July 2006, the Hong Kong government introduced the five-day week arrangement into the civil service, and encouraged employers to follow suit. In December 2007, the Japanese government laid out a charter and an action plan to promote harmony between work and leisure.

There are lots of things companies can do to alleviate the problem of ill health due to overwork, even during an economic downturn. Statistics show that there is a strong relationship between unemployment and suicide. So one obvious way companies can do is to avoid slashing their staff even during an economic downturn. Last year, there were some good examples led by companies in the financial and professional services sectors, which offered their employees a no-pay leave option in lieu of lay-offs. For instance, CIMB was the first Malaysian bank to try to get around the economic downturn by offering an added employee “benefit”. All of the company’s 36,000 employees were offered the opportunity to take unpaid leave of 1-6 months. The programme was voluntary, and staff were guaranteed to return to the same position and pay grade.

Setting up help lines for employees at risk, putting in place an employee grievance system, partnering with external partners to conduct stress relief courses, adopting flexible working hours, providing more paid leave are just some other proactive ways to engage with the issue. The most critical step is that senior management would lead by example – do not expect your staff will leave the office on time if you never do.

Suicide and illness from overtime work is itself a complex problem and brings about a string of problems which require collaboration from government, social workers and businesses. But rather than treating this as a problem, I reckon that companies should view the engagement process as a valid business move to retain talent, bolster staff morale and enhance productivity – one that would breathe life into your business. ■