Hybrid engineer dies from overwork

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...


Getting quality hybrids to the market is a worthy cause, but not at this expense.

Re: Hybrid engineer dies from overwork

And you think this is unusual? Guess you don't know many engineers.

Rob

Re: Hybrid engineer dies from overwork

That's only a 60 hr work week, for an engineer on a hot project a 70+ hr work week is the normal for a 2-3 month period. Guess in Japan they have it easy....

Re: Hybrid engineer dies from overwork

Why is this thread even in existence?

Re: Hybrid engineer dies from overwork

Engineers working long hours unusual...not at all. Just thought I would share the story about this loss and a point of view.

Jeff
Electrical Engineer

Re: Hybrid engineer dies from overwork

Sorry to be a bit touchy. You're about the fourth guy to post this story today, and its the sort of thing people like to throw out there saying "see, your Prius' aren't so great. They kill people!" The reality is that this happens all the time in pretty much any industry you care to look at and has nothing whatsoever to do with the Prius. The only reason it exists as a "news" item is its trendy to dig up ways to make fun of a popular product. Sells more ads.

There's also been an abnormally high number of trolls coming out of TX lately, so that probably didn't help my reaction either.

FWIW I'd question the ruling there, 60 hours a week for 2 months is pretty pedestrian. Of course stress is bad for anyone, but if that did this guy in I'd say he was in pretty rough shape to begin with. My personal record is 16 weeks straight without a single day off, and a minimum of 12 hours a day. Worked 90-120 hours every single week. And to add to the stress my wife was pregnant with our first child at the time. There's something to be proud of, huh? Glad my startup days are over.

Rob

Working 60 hours per week is not unusual here in the Silicon Valley. Being an engineer or technical consultant (like me), it is quite common...

Unfortunately, I think that the guy who died must have had other medical problems.

Keith

I posted it because it was on Yahoo as a news story about the people who work on a car we love. I think it's apparent that he had more going on than simply some stress, which probably only exacerbated things.

How it got to Yahoo or other news services, when lots of people die while at work, is an interesting question. I think it's more a subliminal critique on the downside to Japan's push for productivity than a slam at the Prius per se. But who knows.

I dunno, I think it's always good to know what's out there being said. I'd laugh at anyone who says the Prius is killing engineers, but I like knowing what's being reported by news services. Things are kinda touchy around here, I guess.

Fair enough. That was why I didn't respond in your thread. You did frame it in that context, and I agree with you. I'd just add that many Americans (myself included) are just as bad. Personally I'm looking for a way to transfer to our office in Sweden. Free healthcare, 25 days of holiday (to our 10), 6 month paid paternity (to our 12 weeks unpaid), and their engineers are unionised

:grouphug:

Rob

Poor SOB

RIP salaryman!

We'll miss him

at least he dies happy... working on what he loved.

wow, that's terrible.

i should have been dead years ago if overwork killed people... i've been putting in way too many hours since approximately 1999 when i was working full time and going to high school. working less than full time was kind of a relief in college but the coursework was a sight harder. don't ask about grad school, i must really hate myself to put myself through what i did in june.

clearly there were other issues in play here than overworking. i hope his family considers that in their own lives.

Some chatgroup posters are inflicted with tabloid disease. You can get it easily with msn.com as your homepage, for example.

Would it be safe to assume that this has never happened to a GM engineer?

Thankyou, I was about to search for; -
GM quality engineer dies from,
1) alcohol abuse,
2) excess partying,
3) obesity from doing nothing.

A bunch of us from disney went to the Oriental Land company (Disney Japan) during construction of their Splash Mountain. Witnessing first hand, you never saw such a bunch of hard drinking / hard smoking folks. It's a wonder that Japanese life expectancy is one of the highest. Our adopted japanese daughter's (just turned 30) great grand mother is still kicking at age 107. The oldest in her city, she's still takeing regular walks, and is mentally sharp. Then again, she was never a hard smoking engineer.