The HRA Editorial - April 2009: Employees in Crisis: When mood kills

  • 27 Mar 2009 17:09
    Message # 134775
    Jun (Administrator)
    A body hangs by a rope strung over the ceiling. A troubled soul in a suit plunges in front of a speeding morning train. Scenes like these have become so typical the management of Japan Railways (JR) even came out with an ordinance requiring families of suicide victims who throw themselves in front of speeding trains to pay for the cleanup costs.

    In a restrictive society that frowns upon failure and nonconformity, taking one’s own life (
    自殺or jisatsu) seems to have become an accepted way of ending the despair. Public discussion of suicide as a social problem remains to be taboo in this cloistered country and yet the statistics is distressing. Recent government figures indicate that about 32,000 people took their own lives in 2008, marking the 11th straight year that suicides remained above the 30,000-mark, which make the Japanese among the most suicidal people in the developed world.

    Unfortunately, as the economy worsens there is fear that depression, and ultimately, mood-related hopelessness can get worse. Recession can easily become one of the lowest period in everyone’s life. As the economy struggles to remain buoyant, more and more people become at risk of losing their jobs or sources of income. Interestingly, amidst all cultural studies explaining suicide in Japan, empirical studies still point to socio-economic conditions as the most significant variable. In general, according to one study by University of Tokyo economists, better economic conditions such as high levels of income and higher economic growth tend to reduce suicide rate while factors such as income inequality tend to increase it.

    It may be worthwhile to mention that at the height of the Japanese economic miracle, workers committed themselves to an implicit social contract—to work tirelessly for their companies which in return would take care of them for life. But when the economic bubble burst, panic over inevitable downsizing left many workers feeling betrayed and confused. Immediately they had to face families they had barely known and have neglected in favor of work, a society that frowns upon failures, and very little prospects in terms of career opportunities.

    Employees, indeed, are at the very heart of Japan’s depression epidemic. Fortunately, a few large corporations are now trying to break down the suicide taboo and are addressing the issue head on through employee assistance programs
    (EAPs), confidential counseling, and health plans that cover depression and other psychological conditions. For example, Sony’s preventive health care program which allows off-site consultation and confidentiality, for instance, is regarded as a major step in these efforts.


    As individuals, of course, we can always choose to distance ourselves away from suicide and help others from falling into the depression maelstrom. We can begin by starting each day with a tiny drop of optimism and a grain of hope. Why not? Before we know it, the financial markets will bounce back, the economy will stabilize, jobs will become available and the world will turn to normal in a short while.

    As French author François Duc de La Rochefoucauld
    aptly put it, hope, deceitful as it is, should serve at least to lead us to the end of our lives by an agreeable route. This crisis shall pass and when it does, will you be there as a survivor or a part of the statistics?--JK

    Read the full white paper version of this Editorial (requires Virtual or Premium access)

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