KNOW THE LINE BETWEEN KAIZEN AND KAROSHI
In this wild market environment it is increasingly difficult to position and differentiate yourself from your many competitors. So there is a new game to be played. Do you have a game plan? No? Game over. So you need to have a plan, more specifically Plan A and Plan B.
If you have doubts concerning plans, let me explain two things to you. First, planning is essential because it gives you the possibility to manage deviations. Second, it is not a plan to increase your working hours. You have probably thought about this but let me tell you, in case you are having some doubts, it is not sustainable to start working sixteen hours a day. I know, because I tried it. It is not healthy, physically or mentally. You will not increase your performance. Time is against you: the curve will go down, faster and lower than you ever thought possible. In some countries the rate of burnout is already higher than the rate of heart attacks. If you reach the eighty-hour working week, than you are probably close to ‘death by overwork’. In Japan, sudden death from a heart attack or stroke brought on by overwork is known as karoshi. This first emerged as a major problem in the 1970s, coinciding with cuts in jobs and a resulting increase in individuals’ workloads. Many Japanese employees were therefore working an average of twelve hours a day.
So take care in the current deregulated labour market, which seems to justify overworking and underpaying large sections of the workforce. Nobody will deny that hard work is the base of success. But there is a fine line between kaizen, the Japanese term for continuous improvement, and karoshi, death by overwork. Prepare yourself constantly. Opportunity always favours the prepared mind.
