Stop working overtime! ! !

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According to a report on CCTV News’ WeChat account on December 10, “There’s a boss named David who shows up at 6 p.m., with a look in his eyes similar to that of a raven; he carries a pot of hot coffee in his hands. Hehehe, shall we hold a meeting? Please don’t say those words, baby – work overtime. I feel completely exhausted; I’m as tired as a dog.” ”Some time ago, this amazing song \"Feeling Like My Body Has Been Emptyed Out\" appeared and quickly went viral on WeChat Moments. One reason is that the lyrics reflect the feelings of many working professionals today – excessive workload and strain on their health. Overtime becoming the norm and high work pressure are now threatening the lives of many young people. Recently, a 24-year-old engineer in Suzhou, who did not smoke or drink and had no bad habits, died suddenly due to frequent overtime work. Just in these past two days, Xiamen University Affiliated Zhongshan Hospital also reported the tragic news of two doctors in their prime dying suddenly. Death from overwork – an unbearable burden in the workplace. “Overwork” seems to have become the norm in Chinese workplaces. Excessive overtime is also the primary cause of death from overwork. Statistics show that extreme work pressure results in 600,000 deaths from overwork in our country each year, making us the country with the highest number of such deaths, surpassing Japan. “The threat of \"death from overwork\" has shifted from manual workers to white-collar workers, with a trend toward younger ages. And this is no longer a phenomenon unique to any single industry; sectors such as advertising, media, healthcare, and finance are all affected by it. “News about \"death from overwork\" appears in the media from time to time. In March 2015, Zhang Bin, a 36-year-old IT professional from Shenzhen, was found dead suddenly in a hotel toilet; at 1 a.m., he had sent his last work email. It is said that in order to meet project deadlines, he often works overtime until 5 or 6 in the morning and then continues working. The day before he died, he told his mother, \"I’m too tired.\" In July 2015, Wang, an employee of a performing arts group in Jiangsu Province, was found dead in his dormitory by his colleagues; the authorities later determined that it was a sudden cardiac death. Wang’s last performance before his death lasted over ten hours. The court determined that the entertainment group should bear 20% of the liability for the losses caused by Wang’s death. On June 29, 2016, Jin Bo, the deputy editor-in-chief of Tianya Community, passed away suddenly due to a cerebral hemorrhage on a Beijing subway platform. His colleagues all say that he has been working extremely hard these past few years, staying up late and working overtime for long periods; although he appears strong on the surface, he has actually developed health problems due to overwork. On June 30, 2016, Jin Dan, a chief physician in the Department of Traumatic Orthopedics at Nanfang Hospital affiliated with Southern Medical University, was found dead in her hospital dormitory at the age of 45. According to colleagues, two days before his death, Dr. Kim continued to work from early morning until around 10 p.m., and then rested in his dormitory due to feeling unwell. ……Death from overwork – the result of the interaction between society and individuals. Medically speaking, death from overwork occurs due to long working hours, increased workload, high psychological stress, and a sub-healthy state of exhaustion; as these conditions accumulate and become difficult to reverse, they can suddenly lead to an acute deterioration of underlying health problems, potentially threatening life if not treated in time. The five diseases that directly lead to death from overwork are, in order: coronary artery disease, aortic aneurysm, heart valve disease, cardiomyopathy, and cerebral hemorrhage. In addition, digestive system diseases, kidney failure, and infectious diseases can also lead to death from overwork. However, what appears to be death from overwork caused by individual factors becomes a comprehensive result of the interaction of various factors when it turns into a widespread social phenomenon. For example, increasing pressure from economic and social transformation, intensified competition, and an imperfect social security system. In fact, many employees often choose to work overtime voluntarily in order to earn the salary needed to support their families, as well as for reasons related to promotions and career advancement” ； And once a tragedy of death from overwork occurs, Chinese law does not provide clear provisions regarding the connection between the onset of the disease and work, leaving those who die from overwork in an awkward situation with no legal protection. This \"no blame for overwork\" attitude further exacerbates the recklessness of employing people to excessive levels. Who is to blame for death from overwork? Who should pay for death from overwork? So how should we prevent and control it? CCTV Commentary: How to Say Goodbye to the \"Modern Era\" of Death from Overwork? It’s Important to Pay Attention to This Issue Early, Not Late. This Teachers’ Day, Liu Yazhou, the political commissar of the National Defense University, took to the podium and discussed the pressures and difficulties faced by young and middle-aged officers in the military, using the case of Xu Ruyan, a teacher at the university who died at a young age. Liu Yazhou shed tears several times and appealed to society as a whole: Stop waiting until middle-aged and young cadres pass away before showing care. High competition is the overarching context of our times, one that transcends individual choices and has drawn in the majority of people. For this reason, Chaplin’s \"The Modern Times\" has been performed for nearly a century, yet it seems to repeat itself every time. The elastic of competition is hard to loosen in a short time. Because for the time being, it is difficult for us to \"achieve great material abundance\" and to regard work as a source of joy. What can be done for now is to impose stricter institutional constraints on overwork, provide better institutional safeguards for the right to rest and leave, and offer individuals more flexible ways to relieve stress. Giving pressure a breather is also giving life a chance. It is necessary to strengthen the legal framework for protecting workers’ rights. Article 36 of China’s Labor Law stipulates an eight-hour working day, with an average weekly working time of no more than 44 hours. The Regulations on Paid Annual Leave for Employees were adopted in 2008, but despite ten years having passed, they remain unimplemented in many organizations. “The leaders are model workers; how can the employees take time off? Working 5+2 hours a day, day and night, is the norm, and taking time off voluntarily is often interpreted as \"being lazy\". From the perspective of the assessment system, although \"performance evaluation\" has become increasingly user-friendly, ultimately, whether it is painful or comfortable still depends on the performance standards themselves. The standards are unreasonable; the so-called flexible working hours may instead lead to disguised exploitation, resulting in involuntary \"voluntary overtime\". It can be said that only when the legal framework for protecting workers’ rights becomes truly robust will workers not collapse for no reason. Today, in many market-oriented organizations, such as foreign companies and IT firms, trade union organizations are absent, making it impossible to establish internal oversight ； And a market-based contract in writing like the \"flexible working hours system\" leaves labor inspection agencies powerless as well. Furthermore, the law is also vague regarding the determination of death from overwork. Is death from overwork considered a work-related injury? How much responsibility does the employer bear? If the punishment is not severe, the lesson will never be strong enough. It’s important for everyone to have a buffer zone for their own health; personal choices also play a role. Undoubtedly, the vast majority of workers do not die suddenly because their bosses force them to work hard; they are often model workers and hardworking individuals who strive to surpass themselves at work. I once saw a description by a programmer on Zhihu: “After a year, their pleasure comes mostly from belittling other programmers and driving them away—those are the happiest when someone is forced to leave due to the survival of the fittest, because it proves that they are stronger than those people.” ”Is there really no way to make things easier for individuals? There are also. A Dutch design company came up with a solution: at the end of the workday, without any warning, the desk along with the computer on it would lift off into the air, leaving only the chair on the ground. This \"turn the table upside down\" design not only ensures the right to rest but also encourages employees to improve efficiency. Perhaps, in this increasingly competitive society, everyone should have such a set of adjustable tabletops in mind, to provide a secure buffer for their health. After all, life and death are matters of great importance; only oneself can truly protect themselves. Stop working overtime! Hospitals, social security offices, crematoriums – Old Wang next door really likes it when you work overtime. Stop working overtime! Are you contributing to social security for your livelihood? Stop working overtime! I’m in such a tough situation – how can I not work overtime!