ABSTRACT
Psychiatric examinations of technicians who work long overtime hours were conducted in order to use the results as data in the effort to reduce working hours in Japan. Subjects consisted of 108 computer technicians who (1) worked 80 or more hours of overtime in the previous month, or (2) worked 60 or more hours of overtime per month for the last 3 months in a row. Subjects were broken down into 3 groups : Group A(16 persons), who wanted to quit their jobs, Group B (88 persons), who did not feel enthusiastic about their work, and Group C (4 persons ), who were absorbed in their work. Subjects in Groups A and B felt burdened by their work but continued working overtime because they felt they had no choice. Group C subjects, on the other hand, were absorbed in their work and enjoyed a sense of fulfillment. Based on the mental state of these technicians, we point out measures to encourage reduction in working hours.
KEY WORDS
Computer technicians, Industrial health, Overtime work, Work
dependency
INTRODUCTION
The average number of hours worked per month has been decreasing in Japan in recent years, but Japanese workers still work more hours than their counterparts in major European countries, and the number of overtime hours they work is increasing.
Despite directives by the Ministry of Labor, working hour reduction is not progressing.
Schor3) points out that workers in Japan, Korea and the US are overworked. The Japanese, it is often said, are a particularly hardworking people who do not mind overtime.
The authors5) previously conducted a questionnaire survey of 2,690 computer technicians and found that technicians who work more than 50 hours of overtime per month considered themselves less healthy than those who worked under 50. On the other hand, they also found among these subjects a group who can be considered work-dependent, who felt healthy and well-adapted to their workplace regardless of the number of overtime hours they worked. Subjects thus varied greatly in regard to whether or not they felt that overtime work was harming their health.
Uehata4) has reported a link between long overtime working hours and karoshi (death from overwork), indicating that long overtime work is a factor that leads to aggravation of fatigue and illness. As mentioned above, however, some workers do not feel that their long overtime work is harmful to their health, and few of them would try to refrain from overtime work even if they thought it was. No psychiatric study of workers who engage in long overtime has been done. Such a study would help clarify the actual mental state of workers who engage in overtime work despite being worried about their health, and serve as important data in the effort to reduce working hours.
We recently had the opportunity to conduct psychiatric examinations of computer technicians who work long overtime hours.
In the following, we report our findings in regard to technicians who continue to work overtime despite feeling burdened by their work and dissatisfied with their lifestyle, and technicians who are absorbed in their work and can be considered work-dependent.
SUBJECTS AND METHODS
Subjects consisted of 108 systems engineers, programmers and operators (104 men, 4 women) employed by a certain company, and were composed of two groups: (1) those who worked 80 or more hours of overtime in the previous month, and (2) those who worked 60 hours of overtime a month for the last three months in a row.
Subject were each given a psychiatric examination mainly to determine the presence absence of mental illness, and were also asked about the reasons for their overtime work, whether they were dissatisfied with their lifestyle, and whether they felt burdened by their work.
RESULTS
The 108 subjects were broken down into three groups: Group A consisted of subjects who wanted to quit their jobs because of obvious mental and physical fatigue. Group B of subjects who were not enthusiastic about their work, and Group C of subjects who were absorbed by their work. The number of subjects per group, their ages, and the mean number of overtime hours worked in the last three months are shown in Table 1. On the basis of the psychiatric examination, Group A was diagnosed as maladjusted.
1. Reasons for overtime work and dissatisfaction with lifestyle
The number one reason for overtime work was inappropriate systems development management (53.7%). Specifically, development required more time than expected due to inaccurate completion date and cost estimates. The number two reason was clientsﾕ requests (19.4%). e. g., because of frequent changes of specifications by clients, specifications requested by clients were inappropriate, or the convenience of the client made it necessary to work in the evening.
The 104 subjects in Groups A and B complained of dissatisfaction with their lifestyles, the main reasons being (1) lack of spare time (32.7%), (2) mental and physical fatigue (31.7%), and (3) lack of time for family and friends (13.5%).
The main psychological reasons subjects work long overtime hours despite dissatisfaction with their lifestyles and some of their more representative comments are presented in Table 2.
2. Groups A and B
Group A and B subjects felt their work to be a burden. Their most common reasons for feeling burdened were (1) amount of work (34.6%), (2) problems with interpersonal relationships (23.1%), and (3) lack of technical ability (20.2%). Of the 16 subjects in Group A, 7 felt most burdened by amount of work, 4 by difficulties in interpersonal relationships, 3 by inability to improve their technical abilities, and 2 by the feeling that they were not suited to their work.
3. Group C
Despite working long overtime hours, some subjects were absorbed in their work and put it before all else in their lives. Four such subjects, who can be considered work-dependent, were recognized. These cases are presented in Table 3.
DISCUSSION
1. Amount of overtime work
According to the Ministry of Labor1). the main reasons for overtime work in the information processing industry, in order, are (1) client requests (frequent changes of specifications by clients, difficulty in understanding requested specifications, clientsﾕ business hours and convenience), (2) insufficient technical skills or insufficient number of capable technicians, and (3) inappropriate systems development management (inaccurate completion date and cost estimates, work errors, etc.). In the present study, technicians gave (3) and (1) above as reasons for overtime work. These problems could probably be solved through the efforts of management.
Because of the long overtime hours they work, nearly all of the technicians in the present study complained of a lack of spare time, mental and physical fatigue, and a lack of time for family and friends. They continued to work out a sense of resignation, duty, responsibility, etc. They felt dissatisfied with their companies but did not express their criticisms openly. One could say that they seemed to work overtime and do their jobs in a half-willing, half-unwilling manner.
2. Feeling of work as a burden
According to the Ministry of Laborﾕs ﾒSurvey on Workersﾕ Health,ﾓ 57.3% of workers report feeling anxious, oppressed, or stressed by their work and workplace1).
Specifically, they complained about (1) interpersonal relationships in the workplace, (2) the amount and quality of their work, and (3) being unsuited for their work. Of the 108 subjects in the present study, 104 complained of feeling burdened at work, and attributed this feeling to too-much work, problems in relationships with coworkers, and their own insufficient technical skills. Particularly interesting here is that only 34.6% complained of feeling burdened by their amount of work. Moreover, of the 16 subjects who wished to quit their jobs (Group A), only seven said it was because of their long overtime hours. For most of the technicians in our study, the feeling of being burdened by work was not connected with long overtime hours. The reason may be the Japanese cultural background, in which diligence is praised and people are not supposed to be dissatisfied with work.
3. Technicians who do not feel burdened by their work
The 104 subjects in Groups A and B found their work to be a source of suffering. Despite wanting to go home, they resigned themselves to remaining late in order to meet deadlines. On the other hand, some technicians seemed to live for their work. The four subjects in Group C were so absorbed by their work that they did not mind reducing their time for eating and sleeping.
There are three symptoms of work dependency:(1) giving work priority over everything else, (2) long overtime work, and (3) resistance to taking time off2). From their own statements, the four subjects in Group C seem to have these three symptoms, and are probably work-dependent. They say that they live for their work, but do not recognize that they are work-dependent. When fatigued, they either do not notice or make a surface show of health, it is said.
In the workplace, these work-dependent technicians probably make other technicians feel an unspoken pressure to work overtime. Overtime work becomes a given, and an atmosphere develops in which taking time off is difficult. Sacrificing their personal lives, Group B subjects continued to work overtime, though with reluctance. As for Group A subjects, long overtime was one reason they thought of fleeing the workplace.
4. Measures to reduce working hours
Due to lack of sleep and fatigue, it is probable that technicians who continue working long overtime hours are unable to fully demonstrate their skills and sooner or later harm their health. It is necessary to reduce the number of hours technicians work so that they can regard their work with satisfaction and maintain their mental and physical health.
Nearly all the technicians in this survey felt burdened by their work. They continued working as a duty they felt they had to put up with. The reasons for their overtime work (mentioned above) are clear, and company managers need to endeavor to establish policies to prevent overtime work from occurring. On the other hand, a few technicians were absorbed in their work and felt happy. Such work-dependent persons will not try to reduce the amount of overtime they work even if policies to reduce overtime work are established. Helping work-dependent persons change their value-sense that working hard makes life worthwhile and their work-centered lifestyle would probably be effective in reducing working hours.
REFERENCES
Received on April 17, 1997 and accepted on May 31, 1997
Department of
Neuropsychiatry, School of Medicine, Nihon University
2-11-1, Hikarigaoka,
Nerima-ku, Tokyo 179, Japan