The Japanese have a word, karōshi, to describe people who work themselves to death. There was a case recently of a 37-year-old doctor who, due to her excessive overtime (251 hours in the space of a month), developed depression and later suicided. In China the word used is guolaosi. Various reports over the past few years put the annual casualty figure at more than 600,000. South Korea, too, has a term for this pervasive condition: gwarosa.
![A new study has revealed the types of jobs that lead to early death.](http://web.archive.org./web/20170831232616im_/https://www.fairfaxstatic.com.au/content/dam/images/g/w/b/f/c/a/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gwrmqd.png/1497595090249.jpg)
Maybe it's the West's turn now to create its own moniker.
Not at all because the problem is anywhere near as bad here. We rarely have employees, like in those territories, who fatally collapse at their desks from physical and emotional exhaustion. But an American study has been published in the esteemed Personnel Psychology journal which provides evidence that the type of work we do could be wiping years off our life in a more gradual, more insidious manner.
The study involved two surveys of almost 2400 people conducted seven years apart. By the time of the second survey, 8 per cent of the participants had died. When the researchers compared the deceased's responses to the others who had outlived them, the findings were quite revealing. They found there's a 15 per cent greater likelihood of death when two specific job-related factors were present: high job demands and low job control.
Here's what those terms mean.
Job demands are reflected in the pressure many of us face at work. This could include the stress of having to meet tight deadlines, tasks that require intense concentration, and a hectic workload.
Job control reflects the influence you have over your work. If your employer gives you enough autonomy, involves you in decision-making, and provides you with discretion to determine how to do your job, you're said to have control. If you don't, as per many of the participants in the study, and that lack of control is compounded by demanding work, you're 15 per cent more likely to die.
The most common causes of death were cancer and diseases associated with the circulatory system, such as heart failure and strokes, which together accounted for three quarters of the deceased. Those afflictions are perhaps not that surprising when you consider prior studies that found a demanding job with low control leads to higher rates of blood pressure and cortisol.
Especially at risk are those who work in frontline service positions and manufacturing, who in the study accounted for 26 per cent and 32 per cent of the reported deaths, respectively. Those professions are notorious for placing huge demands on their workers while depriving them of the control they need.
In contrast, what do you think happened when the participants worked in jobs where high demands still existed but which were counterbalanced by equally high levels of control? Astonishingly, it's a combination that resulted in a 34 per cent decrease in the odds of dying.
They're unambiguously impressive odds, and they arise because people cultivate fulfilment, as opposed to strain, when they have the opportunity to complete challenging tasks so long as "they have the necessary resources to cope with the increased workload".
They're also subsequently less inclined to engage in unhealthy practices or to suffer from physiological disorders stemming from psychological strain, such as depression, cardiovascular disease and diabetes "that are linked with mortality later in life".
As the researchers conclude, it now seems abundantly clear "that certain work contexts may provide the catalyst to live longer or speed the path toward the inevitable".
James Adonis is the author How To Be Great.
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