Karoshi syndrome

In April 2007, a 31 year old Romanian woman working one of the Big 4 financial consulting companies died. The diagnostic was death due to physical and mental exhaustion caused by excessive work.

The case got extended coverage in the national media. The authorities investigated the case and fined the company merely 7,000$ after revealing that the woman worked endless hours, collapsed on the job a few days before her death and the company's HR Director limited his/her actions to send the woman for a medical check-up.

Yet, the HR records show that the woman didn't use her vacation days in years, the overtime hours were not recorded even though she worked well beyond the 40 hours/ week overtime limit.
Associates in financial consulting companies, admit that hectic schedule, pressure to complete projects, countless overtime hours are a "must" of a financial consultant job.

Yet, the case is not unique. People in Asia are more familiar with this kind of work related deaths. It's called the Karoshi Syndrome.

" Stated simply, KAROSHI means death from overwork. Overwork and excessive stress cause medical problems, such as cerebral and heart disease, mental disorders,and eventually death.

The term of "KAROSHI" has become widely used in Japan since the KAROSHI Hotline was set up in 1988, and is a word that is now being used more and more in other parts of the industrialized world." (http://www.karoshi.jp/english/overwork.html)

There are thousands of cases each year. People in growing and highly competitive economies seem to be more likely to fall in the trap of excessive work due to intrinsic pressure ( to prove themselves, to obtain recognition) as a symptom or effect of an illness like depression or as a result of an organizational, industry pressure.

HR professionals role extends beyond legal compliance.
Yes, don't allow associates to work more than the legal amount of overtime! But at the same time, make sure you send the right message!
We hire you to work on the job, not to die on the job!

Make sure the company's culture discourages endless overtime (approved or unapproved, known or unknown). Supervisors and managers believe they send a good signal if they stay at work beyond the schedule, but it might encourage lower level employees to believe that's normal and expected and that's how you impress you boss for the next raise or promotion.

I know someone who was in love with his career, a real high-flier brilliant manager. He thought it would be nice to have a personal life, but he never made time for it. At 10pm he used to be at work, at 2am he would go to work for a sudden change in a presentation for the next day. He put all his efforts into the company he worked for, he was living the job and enjoying it and when the company crashed, he crashed with it- depression, despair, hopelessness, anger... and nothing was ever the same.

All because he thought life worth living and enjoying after reaching a certain position, a certain salary package, a certain network of people. I saw him going down without really hearing my advice " it doesn't worth being on top of the world if you are alone and/or sick". Career is of course important, but more important is to have a balanced life. Organizations came and go, but people remain.


You can build up a career anytime, but you can't find love at every corner, or fix your health by taking pills. Nor you cannot make out for mistakes just by saying "I'm sorry". Priorities are something we all have and we tend to believe they are set just right.

And maybe on paper or in our mental list is true and justifiable. But what we do in real life proves to be different. There is always a new project to be done, a promotion, a problem, overtime... until work has taken over our life, our health, relationships and above all our inner self.

"Tomorrow I'll talk to my partner, ...next week 'll go to the doctor and check my heart pain,... next month I'll take vacation, ...I'll go out with my friends,... spend time with myself... but right now, right now I have to finish this, because this is important!"


Words are words. They used to carry more importance when they were an expression of our true self and not of what's socially accepted and expected from us. But words still carry a tremendous power. They can motivate us, they can dissapoint us, they can make us laugh or feel sad. And it's all about how you use them. It's interesting how a simple thing like the words and language we use everyday are connected and lead us or not toward our big goals, how they can help us enjoy life or feel miserable... but it's more than being aware of the power of words. It's a more subtle thing, that is not so much connected to the material world.



Dreams!! Dreams are the first level of our goals. They are made up of things that are important to us: values, principles, feelings,fears, desires. If a dream is strong enough it would turn into a goal and if you are strong enough you make plans and follow them to reach that goal... sometimes the goal is an end, and sometimes that goal is a journey... there no good or bad choice about it. It all stands in how you reach your goals, how high, how deep, how long, how big are variations of the big picture.

But it's how you feel inside what makes the difference. Think of feelings as of details that make a painting interesting and vivid. If you don't have them, is just a plain canvas, but if you put feelings in it, it starts making sense and have meaning for you. More than a goal you reached and a mark on your to do list, is the feeling of happiness, the strength you gained in the process, the little touches that colored your life.

The point is" if you work hard, reward yourself and live the same"
Live your life not your job! There is always another job, but not another life (we can be sure of)

HR outside view

As all HR professionals know, the HR world is never boring. While to some people less conected or knowledgeable about the field, HR seems an administrative, excessively annoying but always took for granted department to me, HR are the glasses that clarify my organizational reality and tell me what hat to wear in every context.

I few weeks ago I receive an email from a friend of mine overseas, containing the first two chapters of his book. As a passionate reader I was really excited that one of my best friends has the talent and inspiration to write a book, not to mention to find the time to do such with everything that has been going on in his life.

As my reading progresed I realize that although the characters and the action were good, my friend missed to do his research on the organizational world. His biggest "mistake" - the one that "offended" me was that he called the HR Department "Personnel-Recruiting". That is an offense to anyone who ever worked in an HR department- even fictional. Recruiting is one of the multiple functions of HR, personnel is part of the old world and doesn't represent the activity we call today HR.
So, I decided to educate my friend on HR. The next second I realized it is a difficult task. Where do I start? What information would be more relevant to what he needs?How do I present the information? What is he trying to accomplish? How would he perceive and reflect the information? I was in full HR mode! And while I managed to summarize and offer him pertinent information, it got me thinking! People see what they are exposed to!

While HR professionals are connected to every department in a company and they need to understand the processes in order to address the needs of the organization, the rest of the organization has a limited understanding of what HR means.
Regular employees contact to HR is limited to updating and maintaning information, ocasionally an evaluation and rarely a problem that HR might help solving. From their point of view the HR wears the "paper walkers" hat I've heard employees saying " those girls in HR do nothing but walk around papers".Line and middle management contact to HR is broader, but because HR emphasis the legal compliance on every move, is seen as a roadblock.

Top management has a tighter connection to HR and expect HR to do the administration and legal compliance in a blink and come up up with overnight solutions to problems that could have been fixed or prevented if HR would be treated more as a strategic partner.

I've had managers coming to me and say " I need 150 workers next week, call the agencies and have them trained and ready to start on Monday". To this manager I was a magician with an endless supply of workers hat! A challenge is a challenge, but then you get what you ask for. HR professionals are good at problem solving, finding good solutions in a short time, but maybe they need to prove more than they are good problem solvers. They need to prove they can think ahead and help the organzation run more effectiveley.

To the people we interact with, we are what we reflect!
Therefore we could reflect more vision, more initiative, more involvement in the decisions affecting the way the company does business. It's a new hat to wear on top of the HR hat. The business hat!

It also means that HR needs to advertise itself better, declutter itself from all the theories & rules and just go and talk to people about what their job really means for the employees and the company.