The family of a 26-year-old doctor in Japan who died by suicide last year after working more than 200 hours of overtime in a single month have pleaded for change in a nation long plagued by overwork culture.
That’s an extra 50 hours a week. Like more than a regular full time job of overtime. No idea how people survive it - they used to by progidious use of uppers like cocaine and amphetamines, but now all these docs aren’t allowed that but still have to do the same shitty hours.
I’m always rather disheartened when I talk to people about the expectations placed on residents in the American medical system because a common response is to say that it doesn’t matter and they deserve it because they’re going to be doctors making a good salary soon enough. I’m in my second year of medical school now, so residency’s a little ways off, but I can’t help but think that people will think of me as spoiled and entitled for pushing back against the 80 hour work weeks that are normal in residency.
