Work Related Injury

Presenteeism: a portmanteau word describing the act of working or attending classes despite being ill.  Manifold theories exist, as do various causes.  Scholars who study workplace dynamics generally agree presenteeism adversely affects productivity.  The Wikipedia article gives a decent topic overview and provides links to academic work on the subject.  The article is available in several languages... but not Japanese.  Not a thing, here.

There exists ample pressure at work in Japan to put in absurdly long hours to no observable purpose.  Workplaces measure work by the time spent at the office, perhaps as a display of company loyalty.  They do not judge each other on actual production.  Everyone seems very, very busy.  Busy, indeed... but not terribly productive (a common side effect of workaholism). The beehive thrums with purposeful buzzing, but the honey runs disproportionately thin compared to the amount of work which appears to occur.

Japan has a phenomenon called 過労死 (karoshi) which literally means "overwork death."  Perhaps, the ultimate work-related injury.  It happens a lot more here than in other industrialized countries.  People just don't know when to go home.  Reasons abound.  Fear of coworkers' judgement (especially senior coworkers).  Fear of reprimand from above. Fear of appearing disloyal to the company.  For the men folk, fear of going home to face their families.  Fear of rush hour trains.  Fear of fear itself.  Who knows, really.

This carbon blob, however, goes home at a normal time.  Some coworkers don't like that.  Don't care.  Have a son to take care of.  Probably disliked by most coworkers, anyway.  Which, back to presenteeism, probably why three years have passed without calling in sick.  Sick as a dog?  Work anyway.  Why?  Because fuck 'em, that's why!

Plus, gotta feed the student loan beast.
学費貸付の鬼に餌をやらなくちゃ。