Toyota Camry Hybrid engineer worked himself to death

Danny Tse

At age of 45....

TOKYO - A Japanese labor bureau has ruled that one of Toyota's top car engineers died from working too many hours, the latest in a string of such findings in a nation where extraordinarily long hours for some employees has long been the norm.

The man who died was aged 45 and had been under severe pressure as the lead engineer in developing a hybrid version of Toyota's blockbuster Camry line, said Mikio Mizuno, the lawyer representing his wife. The man's identity is being withheld at the request of his family, who continue to live in Toyota City where the company is based.

In the two months up to his death, the man averaged more than 80 hours of overtime per month, according to Mizuno.

He regularly worked nights and weekends, was frequently sent abroad and was grappling with shipping a model for the pivotal North American International Auto Show in Detroit when he died of ischemic heart disease in January 2006. The man's daughter found his body at their home the day before he was to leave for the United States.

The ruling was handed down June 30 and will allow his family to collect benefits from his work insurance, Mizuno said.

An officer at the Aichi Labor Bureau on Wednesday confirmed the ruling, but declined to comment on the record.

In a statement, Toyota Motor Corp. offered its condolences and said it would work to improve monitoring of the health of its workers.

There is an effort in Japan to cut down on deaths from overwork, known as "karoshi." Such deaths have steadily increased since the Health Ministry first recognized the phenomenon in 1987.

Last year, a court in central Japan ordered the government to pay compensation to Hiroko Uchino, the wife of a Toyota employee who collapsed at work and died at age 30 in 2002. She took the case to court after her application to the local labor bureau for compensation was rejected.

zombie boy 2000

The only thing that really stands out is "80 hours of overtime". I've known my fair share of people that work 60 hr work weeks... Maybe I'm missing something?

dorokusai

I bet those were some sweet paychecks.

zombie boy 2000

He probably spent it all on hookers and blow. You know those engineer types.

dorokusai

I would have bought alot of shoes.

zombie boy 2000

Well... not everyone shares your penchant for incredible fashion. Especially those enigneer types.

Face

zombie boy 2000 wrote: »

The only thing that really stands out is "80 hours of overtime". I've known my fair share of people that work 60 hr work weeks... Maybe I'm missing something?

Assuming their normal work week is 40 hours, with 80 hours of OT that equals a 120 hour work week. :eek:

I used to average 60, sometimes 70 hours a week, I'd probably die too if I averaged over 100.

EDIT: Doh, I thought it said 80 hours of OT a week. Not as bad as I thought.

Jstas

zombie boy 2000 wrote: »

The only thing that really stands out is "80 hours of overtime". I've known my fair share of people that work 60 hr work weeks... Maybe I'm missing something?

IIRC, Toyota has 12 hour work days. Most people there have a typical work week of 50-60 hours. It he was working the 80 hours average a month on a weekly basis, that'd be horrible. Add the 80 hours of overtime on top of that and you get how many hours he was working. 130-140 hours a week out of 168 hours in a week, dude don't get much time to sleep and eat especially if he has a long commute. That leaves less than 30 hours total over 7 days to eat, sleep, see his family and commute to and from work. That's approximately 4 hours and 15 minutes a day to do that.

Then again, you are talking about people doing 60 hour work weeks and he was doing 80 hours a month of overtime alone on top of typically 50-60 hour work weeks already. That's around 100 hours a week. It's also an average, some weeks could have been more, some could have been less. But 100+ hour work weeks suck royally.

AsSiMiLaTeD

Some people got some funny math going on in this thread:

Let's say the work week there is 60 hours, and he averages 80 hours of OT per month, so 20 hours per week.

That's 80 hours a week he's working. There's 168 hours in a week. Let's say you take away 8 hours a day for sleep and a shower. That leaves 112 hours. Subtract from that the 80 he's working, still leaves him with 32 hours of free time every week to get to the gym and get his exercise, eat, and all that good stuff.

I'm not saying 80 hours a week isn't alot, but I've worked that much before, and between my 'real' job and all my side projects I'm sure I do close to that now.

I don't think that alone is enough to kill someone. Sure that combined with no exercise in the free time you do have and bad eating habits can kill ya, but so can working 40 hours a week with those same bad habits.

Jstas

AsSiMiLaTeD wrote: »

Some people got some funny math going on in this thread:

Let's say the work week there is 60 hours, and he averages 80 hours of OT per month, so 20 hours per week.

That's 80 hours a week he's working. There's 168 hours in a week. Let's say you take away 8 hours a day for sleep and a shower. That leaves 112 hours. Subtract from that the 80 he's working, still leaves him with 32 hours of free time every week to get to the gym and get his exercise, eat, and all that good stuff.

I'm not saying 80 hours a week isn't alot, but I've worked that much before, and between my 'real' job and all my side projects I'm sure I do close to that now.

I don't think that alone is enough to kill someone. Sure that combined with no exercise in the free time you do have and bad eating habits can kill ya, but so can working 40 hours a week with those same bad habits.

That's great and all but you are assuming that they have a 40 hour work week. Take your work week and add 20 hours on to it. Then add 20+ hours of OT a week on top of that. You are over 80 hours a week at that point. Your 8 hours a day to shower and sleep gets truncated pretty quick when you have to cram in there commute time, eating time and even takin' a dump time.

The source of the "funny math" in this thread is because people are assuming things that aren't true and comparing the Japanese working culture to an American working culture and they don't match up at all.

If one read the news story and the related stories, one would also see that the 80 hours a month of overtime is only what the worker reported. His wife gave testimony that the actual numbers were almost twice that a month.

The dude died from heart disease that is typically brought on by high stress, malnutrition and exacerbated by lack of rest. No matter what, it's a nice feather in Toyota's cap.

And honestly, Japan has this kinda thing happening so often that they actually have a name for it. Karoshi.

AsSiMiLaTeD

Jstas, red my entire post...again. Be honest, you didn't read it the first time did you?

AsSiMiLaTeD

By the way, I'm not disputing it's alot of hours, but I have to assume that one of the two things is true:

1) He didn't die from that alone
2) Alot of people all over the world also die from that, in which case what makes this any different than any other story?

Again, I know several people who put in close to 80 hours a week.

No, I didn't read any of the related stories, just what was posted above, so that's all I have to go on.

Jstas

Yes, I did read your post. You should do a bit more research on the topic.

I too have worked 80 hour work weeks before and they are rough. But do 2-3 months of it straight and tell me how you feel when you are done. If you make it.

madmax

I've done 80 hour workweeks plus a second job for 2 months straight. The first week is hard but after that its nothing. I don't think a non-physical labor type job with those hours will hurt you. After all, if you work 8 hours, drive home, mess around on the internet for several hours, read a book and pay some bills then get 5 hours of sleep you are doing the same thing. Clearly someone with other stress issues.

obieone

Sheeeet! I did an avg. of 100 hours / wk on my 1st deployment in the navy. For 6 MONTHS. The worst was going into the Gulf and playing with the Saudi marines. 1 hour of sleep a night for 8 days straight. I thought I was gonna die.

Granted, I wasn't 45 at the time....

jephdood

It's not simply the amount of time spent that did him in.. it's the constant pressure and stress he was under during that expanded work time. THAT.. can kill you.

hockeyboy

I have worked 120 hour weeks and survived. It sucked but there it was.