Karoshi – Workaholism and Stress

         The Japanese call it karoshi. They have to have a word for it because it happens so often. In a culture that breeds work addiction at every age and where children go to school six days a week and clean their own classrooms, and where workers have the longest work week in the industrialized world, karoshi has become a dreaded syndrome. It means “death from overwork.” You get it stamped on your death certificate if your widow can prove you worked continuously just before you died. She gets a small pension as a reward.

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         Workaholism is our equivalent for karoshi. It may not directly kill us, but it certainly does indirectly, because workaholics are among the most highly stressed in any company. Because karoshi has become such a serious problem in Japan, top business leaders have begun to urge workers to take time off and try to relax. Good luck! True workaholics don’t easily give up their “fix.”

         While it is true that workaholics are the product of their own inner dynamics, the workplace both creates and reinforces the addiction to work. Any workplace that has more than its share of workaholics is bound to be a toxic place; its values are skewed in such a way that they imbalance the personal lives of those in its clutches.

          Workaholism is an addiction. Work provides a “fix” not unlike cocaine. Adrenaline stimulation probably underlies this fix, but I suspect other hidden mechanisms are at work as well.

          Not everyone who works hard is a workaholic, however. A “work enthusiast” is different in that work isn’t used to anesthetize emotions. Work enthusiasts can take time to goof off and have no problems relaxing. Their identity is not defined by their work. Management would do well to reward this type of service over that of the workaholic.