In December 2015, Matsuri Takahashi, an employee of one of the largest advertising companies in Japan, jumped to her death from the company dormitory. In her last posts on her social media pages, she had complained about excessive fatigue, insomnia, and overwork. Research showed that she had worked more than 100 hours of overtime in the month leading up to her suicide, and this excessive work had pushed her to the brink of mental and physical collapse.

We have heard a lot about the responsible Japanese and also Europeans who value personal life as much as career advancement. The diversity of work and organizational culture is evident when comparing these two narratives. On one side of the world, a person commits suicide due to fatigue from overwork, while on the other side, employers send their employees on mandatory leave so they can spend some time away from work-related stress for the sake of their physical and mental health.

In Asian countries, work has always been a large part of life, and spending long hours at the workplace has become a societal norm and a common behavior. In America, the situation is not much better; the work culture is such that employees are expected to be available even during non-working hours, but in European countries, there is a clear boundary between work and personal life.

Overall, the behaviors, values, expectations, and specific management styles are referred to as "organizational culture," where respect for employees' personal lives is one of its unwritten principles.

Among managers and in business circles, organizational culture can be summarized in one sentence: "the company's specific way of doing work." In simpler terms, organizational culture guides how employees work and affects hiring criteria, how to organize the work environment, and how to encourage and reward effectively.

Organizational culture is largely influenced by the prevailing values of a society, and social beliefs and traditions impact its principles, but each company can also have its unique work culture, often determined by its mission, goals, or values. However, it cannot be considered a written set of rules. Work culture can evolve over time without anyone noticing or explicitly stating what it is or how it should be, gradually becoming accepted behaviors and standards.

Global Diversity of Organizational Culture:

Australia is known as a country with calm and unhurried people, and the prevailing work culture follows this same ethos. For example, workplace attire in this country tends to lean towards comfortable and casual clothing, and hierarchical structures are not strongly imposed on companies. Typically, internal communication in Australian companies is very informal, friendly, and decision-making is based on group consensus. For Australians, time after working hours is very valuable; thus, laws in this country allow only 10 hours of overtime per week, and no employer can force their employees to work more overtime.

In contrast, there is a country like China where hierarchy reigns supreme. In Chinese companies, there is usually no room for discussion, opinions, or hearing dissenting views during meetings; once a decision is made, all employees begin to work towards the set goal. China's work culture is referred to as the 996 culture: working from 9 AM to 9 PM, six days a week.

In the online space, some individuals complain about working 300 hours a month, while others say they cannot remember the last time they saw daylight. Such a work culture may be associated with short-term economic productivity, but in the long run, it can lead to burnout and decreased productivity. Young Chinese have initiated the "Lying Flat" movement in response to the pressures of work environments; a movement whose supporters believe in not overworking, being content with short-term achievements, and dedicating time to rest, and they try to promote this new culture to balance the high-pressure work culture of their country.

However, not everyone in the world works like the Chinese. The work culture in a country like Denmark is quite different. Danes are very much in search of a balance between work and life. In recent years, job satisfaction and happiness in the workplace have been prioritized in this country, and in the Danish language, the term "arbejdsglæde" refers to this good feeling individuals have about the work they do. This is a word that is only common in the Scandinavian region and emphasizes the reality that the era of needing to work overtime to keep the economy running is over. Even the workweek in Denmark has been reduced to 37 hours. Employees are expected to leave work by 4 PM, and the duration of holidays and leave has increased to five weeks.

In Iceland, a similar situation prevails, and the fact that both parents are entitled to three months of parental leave while receiving 80 percent of their salary shows how much this country values the satisfaction and well-being of its people. Icelandic companies show great flexibility in changing the working conditions of their employees.

But in Japan, the principle of respect and obedience has shaped working conditions differently. In this country's culture, respect for the elderly or superiors is so important that their work culture has also become hierarchical, with respect being paramount. In Japan, individual ambition has no place, and only collective goals should take precedence. Employees are expected to work long hours to help the company achieve its set objectives. The work culture in this country is based on intense commitment, ethics, loyalty to the company and work, and a very high sense of responsibility.

This extreme view of responsibility has led to the emergence of a phenomenon known as Karoshi, meaning death from overwork. Long-term stress, lack of sleep, and social isolation are the main causes of Karoshi, which can lead to strokes and heart attacks. The long working hours, which sometimes reach 60 or 70 hours a week, have increased the tendency towards suicide among Japanese; the same fate that befell Matsuri Takahashi.

In 2018, Shinzo Abe, the then Prime Minister of Japan, introduced a bill to reform work styles, which required employers to send employees on mandatory leave because, according to the Ministry of Health, Labor, and Welfare of Japan, people in this country only use 50 percent of their leave. However, the problem is that in this law, more than 80 hours of overtime in a month is recognized as a cause of Karoshi, meaning that up to 80 hours of overtime has no legal restrictions.

Social activists in Japan believe that under this law, the government tells you that if you work beyond this threshold, you might die, but it allows you to work up to this threshold. These activists seek to further amend the work style reform law and reduce the permissible overtime cap.

It may be assumed that Japan's progress is due to this work culture, but one can also talk about industrial countries where the balance between work and personal life is of great importance. For example, in Germany, despite the fact that the organizational culture is based on increasing productivity and efficiency of companies, and Germans themselves are committed and punctual individuals, for them, work and personal life are considered two completely separate and delineated categories.

Although working hours are taken very seriously, not everyone is allowed to work overtime, and there are legal limits defined for it. In the German language, there is a word that means the end of work or closing the workday. No equivalent word for Feierabend can be found in any other language. This word refers to the time between the end of work and sleep, which is actually a time for recreation and leisure, and shows how important it is for Germans to disconnect from work concerns at the end of working hours and start their rest time.

It is strange that Germans, who are often perceived as hardworking and efficient, are so committed to their rest and leisure time, but perhaps this very attitude has paved the way for sustainable development for them. Of course, many believe that the concept of Feierabend is very close to a capitalist mindset, because the more rested the workforce is after working hours, the more productive they become, leading to greater efficiency. The work culture in Germany is based on the theory that rest after work improves stress, helps the body's balanced rhythm, and increases job satisfaction, which in the long run leads to economic growth.

The Right to Disconnect from Work:

The right to disconnect from work is a human right that allows individuals to not respond to any messages from work after working hours, and all work-related emails or calls remain unanswered during non-working hours. The right to disconnect from the workplace was first approved in the office of the French Supreme Court in 2001, and under this law, no employee was required to work from home or bring files or work tools home in any situation.

In 2004, the French Supreme Court upheld this decision and ruled that if an employee did not respond to phone calls outside of working hours, they could not be accused of neglecting their work. In 2016, the French government added this law to its labor laws, and all government employees also gained this right.

After that, EU countries witnessed negotiations between labor unions and companies to enact laws similar to the right to disconnect for each company separately and under its specific conditions.

For example, in 2011, Volkswagen implemented a policy that prevented emails from being sent to employees of the company between 6 PM and 7 AM. In 2013, the German Minister of Labor prohibited any contact from managers with their employees after working hours to preserve the mental health of employees. In 2014, Daimler provided a program called "Mail on Holiday" for its employees, allowing them to delete work-related emails during their travels and holidays.

Italy, Belgium, Spain, the Philippines, Australia, and Canada are countries where different forms of the right to disconnect from work are implemented. For example, in Canada, large companies with more than 25 employees are included in this law, but small companies are exempt, or in Australia, the right to disconnect from the workplace has recently been implemented, but this law does not include emergencies and unreasonable excuses to evade responsibility.

Overall, all European countries are known for their strict laws to protect employees and respect their rest time and personal lives, while America does not enjoy such a privilege. The work culture in America requires that they are always available and responsive. In early 2024, measures were taken in the state of California to enact laws to uphold the right to disconnect from the workplace, but it faced widespread criticism from employers who believed that implementing this law was a step backward for workplace flexibility and could create serious problems among employees working remotely from different time zones.

The diversity of organizational culture around the world and its consequences on personal life and the health of individuals show how important the balance between work and life can be. The approach of Scandinavian countries, Germany, and Australia to balancing work and personal life is evidence of the claim that productivity has nothing to do with longer working hours, but rather it is the optimization of work and working time that brings about job productivity.

Employers must understand that their efforts to increase productivity should not come at the expense of the health and basic rights of their employees. This means maintaining reasonable working hours and creating a sustainable environment will ultimately lead to increased long-term productivity. With this perspective, they can create a healthy work environment that fosters employee engagement, satisfaction, and productivity.

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