[Book review] "Island of Overwork" highlights incidents of death by overwork, explores how society should respond

The writers refute mainstream ideology that encourages or rationalizes long working hours

The cover of the Korean edition of the book “Island of Overwork”

Co-written by a former Taiwanese National Assembly member’s aide and a National Assembly reporter, Huang Yi-Ling and Kao Yu-chih, “Island of Overwork” was published in Korea with the subtitle “The Dangers of a Society That Works People to Death.” This is not the sort of book that attracts notice with a strong title but lacks content.

It’s a book that focuses on incidents of death by overwork based on the authors’ research.

The examples include a semiconductor engineer who died at 30 years of age, slumped over in front of a computer monitor after working an average of 16 hours a day; a 29-year-old security worker who died of a cerebral hemorrhage on duty after receiving zero overtime compensation despite routinely working extra hours; and a 38-year-old physician who collapsed in the operating room after working 360 hours a month and ended up quitting due to severe memory loss.

The book also follows the responses of Taiwanese authorities and society to these incidents of death by overwork. The writers refute mainstream ideology that encourages or rationalizes long working hours. They vividly detail the efforts made to have industrial accidents recognized and achieve institutional improvements, such as expanding the scope of labor standards act enforcement.

It would not be too farfetched to imagine a version of the book called “Peninsula of Overwork,” with Korean names substituted for the Taiwanese people and companies. Many parallels can be drawn with the situation in South Korea, which alternates with Taiwan in posting the world’s longest working hours.

The translator, who lost a family member to overwork, writes, “With these incidents of overwork, it would not have been at all strange to see that they happened in Korea rather than Taiwan.”

Another striking inclusion in the book is a short academic article. The Taiwanese business world attributes the rise in industrial accidents involving younger people to the so-called “Strawberry Generation,” which is seen as lacking in perseverance.

But a researcher with the Academia Sinica shows that the real reason is that young people are forced into service industry jobs characterized by vulnerable working environments.

I’m reminded of the helmeted young worker on a delivery bike who passed by here just now.

By Kim Kyung-rak, staff reporter

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