Overworked Employee Realizes He's Irreplaceable To The Company, Makes The Best Out Of The Situation

Reddit user u/Dcwiker05 was doing a good job at a trucking company so his boss decided to award the employee... with more work.

When the Redditor's department was understaffed, the managers thought they could simply pile up all the work on his shoulders and whenever u/Dcwiker05 tried to communicate that he wasn't comfortable with working 90 to 110-hour weeks, they would repeat the same corporate mantra: "Do the job you were hired to do."

So he did. One day, he clocked in at 7 am and left at 3 pm—the exact time that was agreed upon his hire.

The higher-ups immediately realized that u/Dcwiker05 was irreplaceable to the business.

Sadly, this story isn't a standalone case. The statistics on burnout are grim: a global study from the World Health Organization (WHO) found that in 2016, 488 million people were exposed to long working hours, with more than 745,000 people dying that year from stroke and heart disease as a result of overworking. According to a 2019 report published by People’s Policy Project in collaboration with The Gravel Institute, in one year, the average American works more hours than people in any peer nation. Also, the WHO study said that overwork is the single largest risk factor for occupational disease and has significant impacts on physical and mental health.

"No job is worth the risk of stroke or heart disease," WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said, urging governments, businesses, and workers to find ways to protect workers' health.

"Between 2000 and 2016, the number of deaths from heart disease due to working long hours increased by 42%, and from stroke by 19%," the WHO said as it announced the above-mentioned study, which it conducted with the International Labour Organization and call the first of its kind.

The study doesn't cover the period when the pandemic thrust national economies into crisis and reshaped how millions of people work. But its authors explained that overwork has been on the rise for years due to phenomena such as the gig economy and remote work.

"[Working from home] has become the norm in many industries, often blurring the boundaries between [the two]," Ghebreyesus said. "In addition, many businesses have been forced to scale back or shut down operations to save money, and people who are still on the payroll end up working longer hours."

Just like in our story! Let's hope more of us are willing to stand up for ourselves.