Millions Of Americans Can't Handle The Stress Of Work Anymore

[LiberalEsto]

18. The Japanese have a word for death from overwork: karoshi

More: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karoshi

I believe increasing numbers of workers are becoming ill due to work stress, if not actually dying from heart attacks or strokes related to work stress.

My husband has worked in IT for 30 years. It seems that every year his work week gets longer, the requirements get more extensive, and the workplace (regardless of which company) becomes more toxic. People get fired, and the remaining workers are forced to take over those workloads in addition to their own. One of his co-workers has been hospitalized for stress and overwork, but that doesn't protect him from having to work many hours ever weekend as well as many late nights.

People apparently become managers because they lack empathy for those they manage. These managers know how to use threats and apply stress in order to force the most work out of their victims. If this is what the average workplace in America has become, it's no wonder to me that from time to time vulnerable people snap from stress and go after their supervisors.

At my last job before I was laid off almost five years ago, my employer rarely, if ever, criticized us. She praised every good thing we did, and I worked my ass off for her. She was several years older than I am, and it was a small, woman-owned business. We all took a great deal of pride in our combined efforts. The only reason I stopped working there was that a major client I worked with decided to change focus entirely and no longer required our PR services. In other words, she was old-school management, in which you offered praise and carrots instead of whips, chains and psychological torture.

Since then, the few jobs I've seen that fit some of my skills seem to want someone who can do almost everything: write, edit, proofread, do SEOs, know html, know Adobe Illustrator, Dreamweaver and or Photoshop, have proficiency in Excel and Power Point, know Quickbooks, write speeches and grant proposals, do technical writing, have an MA in Communications and/or a law degree, and so on. Unfortunately, all I have is a BA in English, a modest ability to write well, 25 years as a newspaper reporter and seven years as a semi-technical, semi-marketing writer for energy-related publications and web sites. And no money with which to get training in any of the above. I don't know whether, at 61, I have the stamina to handle such a job.

I think strong unions are the only thing that will protect people from work abuse.