Creating healing workplaces.

b m a 2 s w c r f c i h s c w c o b aroshi, or death by overwork, is commonly known and feared among Japanese workers. When the Japanese government started eleasing data in the 1980s about these udden deaths by heart attack and stroke, hey found that they were caused by reorted occupational stress, long working ours, shift work, irregular work, lack of ontrol, and unpaid overtime, mostly as a esult of Japanese production manageent or “lean manufacturing,” as it is nown in the West. Japanese workers laor an average of 2,017 hours a year—the ighest in the world (followed by the nited States, where workers spend an avrage of 1,907 hours a year at work). Since hen, both the Japanese government and usinesses have been trying to take meaures to require employees to take time off nd go home on time. But the cultural hift has not been easy. Last year alone, the ational police agency in Japan reported hat they believed 10,000 suicides to be aused by overwork. In the United States today, worker satsfaction is at its lowest ever recorded. Emloyees here work longer hours and have ess vacation time than their European ounterparts, while surpassing them in roductivity. For 22 years, The Confernce Board has been surveying workers nd found that a job satisfaction rate of 1% in 1987 has now dropped to a mere 5%. Not finding their jobs interesting, ncome not keeping pace with inflation, nd cost of benefits eating into their takeome pay were some of the reasons cited or this low level of satisfaction. Some ther key findings: only 43% felt secure in heir jobs and 56% liked their coworkers down from 61% in 1987). The Gallupealthways Well-Being Index, which is an ngoing, long-term measurement of peronal well-being based on the World Health rganization’s definition of health, also sureys people on several factors to gauge their eelings and perceptions about their work nvironment. The index consists of quesions workers answer each day, such as t