I guess part of the reason I am able to see this is because I no longer am forced to work wild hours away from people I can talk to. the moment I most considered taking my life was when I was in hotels, sleepless from travel, with fifty pitches on my mind, and making less than minimum wage. I am so grateful for the job I have now and the company I am in. I do the max amount of work, healthily. within my own limits. and I finish at dinner time. so grateful.

@caraellison It's interesting how America and Japan have career stressors in different ways. In the US, there's just no safety net; debt defines most of us, and any health incidents can literally bankrupt you. In Japan it seems more of an honor thing, though I can't pretend to grok it, having never lived there.

It just feels like such a systematic, societal problem. We need to stop shaming people and making them just feel like a burden on society if they're not 110% productive.

@shoeberto a little known secret is that America is responsible for the work culture in Japan. Otherwise they’d be completely communist.

@caraellison Yay capitalism.

@shoeberto we did it

@freakazoid I think there is definitely a 'the nail that sticks up gets hammered down' stuff mixing into it, but it's the pressure cooker that really makes it seem like you are an adult in a corporate workhouse before you're even 13 years old. I taught eight year olds who became completely different people after entering the pressures of high school

@caraellison The combination of "things are shitty now' and "I have nothing but constant work to look forward to" seems like a perfect storm.

I wonder if the Japanese suicide rate is high enough that it's affected their genome to increase the fraction of people able to tolerate such an environment?

@freakazoid no, it hasn’t. They commit suicide at an alarming and upsetting rate.

@caraellison It's probably going to get worse, too. They have a very low birth rate and a rapidly aging population, which means fewer people working to support an increasing number or retired people. Which will cause the birth rate to fall even further.

@caraellison @freakazoid This is to say nothing of growing numbers of hikikomori. And the large numbers of “invisible hikikomori”, freeters, and NEET who are ignored as a social problem because they are girls and women.

When social stresses reach a threshold to push out a critical mass of people, the fabric begins to tear... 🤷🏽‍♀️