Don’t Work Yourself To Death

It can happen, it did happen to Kenichi Uchino. Kenichi Uchino collapsed and died on Toyota’s factory floor before dawn in February of 2002, he was into his fourth hour of overtime. That fourth hour was only four of the more than 106 hours of overtime, most of it unpaid. In his final month at the Toyota car plant he died from sudden heart failure at just 30 years old.

A district court ruled that Kenichi Uchino had literally worked himself to death. after almost six years of legal battles his widow, Hiroko won the battle while holding down her own job and raising two young children.

In Japan, workers are too often expected to sacrifice their personal lives and happiness for the company's benefit. So common place is this practice that there is a Japanese word for this -- 'karoshi', a household Japanese term meaning 'death from overwork'


"Until now, all this unpaid work has contributed to Toyota's 2 trillion yen ($18 billion) profit. As Toyota continues to grow, I hope it will return some of it to its workers. That would make it a true global leader," Hiroko Uchino said.

In Kenichi Uchino’s final week, Uchino was on the second shift at the Toyota factory, which builds the popular Prius hybrid model. According to his widow, he had a heavily overloaded work schedule and a lack of labor to help him. This usually meant that he wouldn’t get home until after 6 am which by that time he would be too exhausted to finish his breakfast or play with his children.

Hiroko Uchino, who said she was probably the first to speak out in public against Toyota on the 'karoshi' issue, accused Japanese media of being reluctant to give Toyota any negative press, fearing repercussions on advertising revenues.

"One regional paper refused to print Toyota's name, only calling them 'a carmaker in the Nagoya area'," she said. "Another magazine also refused to disclose the company, and when I saw the issue, the back cover carried a Toyota ad."


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Leaving The Rat Race

Stress Gets You Nowhere

I came into work this morning tired -- and everything about me was tired. My body was tired, my mind was tired and my eyes were so tired I was actually seeing colored spots of light whenever I looked at my monitor.

I lost my glasses, I have no date for a Masquerade I'm going to, I need to create anther fifty + career profiles and research career ideas in addition to new articles while updating my blog as well as working on personal errands… I told my boss I would do an interview this weekend yet I couldn’t locate a reasonably priced hotel, motel or campground after being told my original accommodations fell through and on top of all that my back was hurting. So I wasn’t surprised that I developed a sever migraine headache that lasted into the afternoon.

By 12:30 I had enough and was ready to call it quits. Instead, I went outside, sat in the sun next to the fountain for a bit, left a long message regarding this coming weekend’s frustrations to my traveling partner and babbled something about upcoming room reservations. Nonetheless, the headache refused to allow the sun to re-energize me. I massaged my temples, I rotated my neck this way and than that way. I took my hair out of the ponytail, put it up in a loose bun and put in back into a ponytail… nothing changed, so I decided to take a long walk shop gazing.

The headache persisted past each window and I had no heart to even enter any of the shops. As I was at the corner to cross back over to work I finally asked myself out loud. “What is it I can do to change anything that will reduce my stress?”

I than mentally ran over the list of what I could and could not change. I ran through what was the worst thing that could happen if I didn’t do or was late in doing each item of the list. I asked myself couldn’t this wait until XXX?

I hate admitting I can’t do or find something and so one more time I looked to see if I could find a motel reservation in the 90% rented Bay area. Still nothing. I was ready to admit defeat when my friend called and was none too happy about something personal regarding our trip. After hearing about the disappointing problem, I got my second wind and refused to admit there wasn’t one more thing I could try. So I did the second thing I do best, I networked. I emailed online acquaintances that I know either go to the Bay area frequency or live in the area. It was a long shot in the dark, but it was still one shot. That one shot hit a lead.

There is an activity lodge in the Bay area that is a cross between a hostel and a campground that not only rents rooms but also occasionally exchanges those rooms for volunteer assistance. I looked them up on the web and the property is beautiful, the atmosphere seems incredibly friendly and the rates are beyond reasonable. Too good to be true? Depends on your outlook.

While they do have their own parking, it’s a two-mile hike from the parking lot to the lodge itself. There is no electricity and guests must bring their own sleeping bags as well as food for the large family / communal kitchen accommodations.

I left a message for the two-mile hike lodge and hopefully I’ll hear back from them soon. However, even if there are no availabilities, I’m reminded that stress gets you nowhere while determination at least gets you a lead… and my migraine is gone.