Free Republic

When Jonny Frostick realised he was having a heart attack this month, the first thing that occurred to the HSBC Holdings Plc contractor was: “I needed to meet with my manager tomorrow, this isn’t convenient.” Then he thought about funding for a project, his will, and finally, his wife. Frostick, who manages more than 20 employees working on regulatory data projects, chronicled his near-death experience in a viral LinkedIn post that had been viewed almost eight million times. The 45-year-old Briton is the latest financial employee to weigh in on the work-till-you-drop culture during a pandemic that’s obliterated the lines...

Overwork had caused the death of a 31-year-old NHK female reporter in 2013, according to the labor standards inspectors, the public broadcaster said Wednesday, providing further evidence of the extreme working conditions many Japanese employees endure. Miwa Sado, who belonged to the broadcaster’s center in Tokyo and died of congestive heart failure in July 2013, worked 159 hours of overtime with only two days off in the one-month period prior to her death, a local labor standards office concluded in May 2014. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s administration has been seeking to improve working conditions in the country following the suicide...

American workers are afraid to take a break. About 57 percent of them don't use all their vacation time each year...

Nation lags far behind virtually all wealthy countries in work-life balance. NEW YORK - The United States lags far behind virtually all wealthy countries with regard to family-oriented workplace policies such as maternity leave, paid sick days and support for breast-feeding, a new study by Harvard and McGill University researchers says. The new data comes as politicians and lobbyists wrangle over whether to scale back the existing federal law providing unpaid family leaves or to push new legislation allowing paid leaves. The study, officially being issued Thursday, says workplace policies for families in the United States are weaker than those...

GOOD news for aspiring high achievers and borderline workaholics: you may be remiss in friendships and asleep at family gatherings, but you will be a big hit in the bedroom. Men who have difficulties balancing career and home life scored highest in a study of their wives' or girlfriends' sexual satisfaction, unveiled last week at the annual gathering of the American Psychological Association. The research challenges the popular notion that spouses of busy men are typically desperate housewives living lonely, unfulfilled lives. They may not see their husbands as much as they would like, but when they do, sparks fly....