Die at work?

Die at work?

 

I truly hope this is just a typo or misprint.

 

‘About 600,000 Chinese a year die from working too hard, according to the China Youth Daily. China Radio International in April reported a toll of 1,600 every day.’ http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-07-03/in-china-white-collar-workers-are-dying-from-overwork

 

 

 

 

This is simply unbelievable.  As a very ordinary person and also an employee, the number of death toll is absolutely staggering to me. Finishing my life at work would be the last thing I would wish for. 1,600 people every day means about 67 people every hour and about a person every minute… so while I am typing this, some people have already ended their life at work. It sounds very depressing, doesn’t it? However, the worst fact to me is that not many people seem to take these very serious figures seriously.

I was born and grown up in South Korea so I do know what kind of pressure people need to bear at workplace and what kind of work ethos is required in order to survive everyday life in the ‘Hard Working’ environment. Fortunately, I was working as a self-employed person so I could choose not to deal with workplace pressure but social pressure and prejudice that suppresses person’s (especially my own) free-will was unbearable.

It was one of the main reasons why I chose to leave my home country to have a ‘Better Life’ in Australia. So, am I happier than before? Did I make a right choice then? Certainly, my lifestyle has been changed a lot and I feel far freer than when I was in Korea. However, more than 10 years of employment has started questioning myself about my dreamed life that I was hoping to find when I left Korea. Am I having a life which I wished for? Am I happy truly to live like now, spending most of my life at work? Wouldn’t I be able to do something more meaningful in my finite life? Will I be okay to exchange my life to money rest of my life?

At this moment, 12 people are sitting around me in their own cage and say nothing. All I can hear is noise from typing the keyboard. Deadly quite…  ‘Are they still alive?’ A silly thought has hit my mind while I am pretending to be one of the busy employees. Fortunately all are definitely alive. I cannot stop giggling head off as it is too depressing way to live our precious life inside of this little cage. Isn’t it insane to live or die at work? Were we really born to live like this?

 

A lady in the lift this morning said loudly to her colleagues when she left the lift. “Another day another dollar!” (which means “good day!”) And we all laughed out. Yes, indeed… another day, another dollar. How many of us are working for only money? Why do we exchange most of our life time for money (to buy and to have more things). Even though who can claim that they love to work, it doesn’t satisfy my curiosity why we need to spend most our lifetime at work (or die at work).  I believe that it is time to examine our life and find out what life really means to us.

 

·        Find out the most important things in our life: Very unfortunately, I still don’t have clear idea about my future such as what to do and how to achieve my dreamed life after my planed early retirement has commenced. However, I ‘100%’ clearly know that I neither want to spend all my life at work nor die at work. Very often we make a mistake by focusing more on less important things. To avoid making the mistake, we need to know what the more important things in our life are. These will direct us to get on a right life path. The most important things for me are health, good relationship with my husband, time for myself, travel, setting up my own money maker etc…. so that I need to spend more time and energy for these things. Knowing what the most valuable things to your life are is the first step towards to your dreamed life.

 

·        Find out the true meaning of work: The reason why I go to work every day to me is very clear at the moment. I work for only getting paid (I know it sounds terrible but it is undeniable ‘TRUE.’). Unfortunately, I do not like what I am doing every single day. Work neither fulfils my passion nor thrills me any longer. Don’t get me wrong.  Work used to be one of the most important parts of my life. I tried hard and I finally realised that I don’t want to exchange my life to work any longer. To me, life is too precious to waste for get more money in order to spend more. How about you? Why do you go to work? Ask yourself and get truthful answers. I am sure it will let you rethink about your current life which can be eternal.

 

·        Find out things to do: As I became a social animal that has been kept in a zoo-like environment for a very long time, I am seriously scared of having too much free time. Will I be okay with managing my life instead of being told what to do? Many of my colleagues commonly asked me what I am going to do with very worried voice/tone when I mentioned my early retirement plan. Of course, I know what I want to do when I am free. I want to do whatever I want to do without being told what to do. I want to do things what make me happy, fulfil my passion and excite me every day. I don’t want to anything when I don’t feel like to do and I want to spend more valuable time with my loved ones. I hate being so tired and lack of energy after work that I cannot think of doing anything I wanted to do and having another days for going to work. I believe that there are so many more things to do in our life instead of working.

 

·        Find out ways to achieve: I do not want all my wishes and plans end up as ‘BS’. I have seen many people who know what they want and how they want but refuse to take any actions to achieve their dreams. Too hard...? Without sincere efforts, dream can stay as only dream. My husband and I have been working on our financial independence in order to achieve our early retirement plan. We have been saving more (over 70% of our salary currently), reducing unnecessary expenses and keeping a simple lifestyle, and we are ready for our freedom as time we want/decide. Having no worry about having a job for living is an absolutely wonderful feeling. It sounds too easy but too hard to do? It is all up to how truly you want to be free. Started as overseas students who were having less than $1,000 in the bank accounts, we have achieved our financial independence within 10 years so why can’t you do that?

 

Please remember that Life is finite. I don’t want to kill either myself or my life at work and hope you don’t either. I believe there are far many things to achieve, experience and enjoy in our life beside of work as long as you set up yourself financially free and mentally and physically healthy. Who has set up the rule that we have to work till when we are old or die? I cannot promise that I will never see this type of shocking article in future but I hope at least some of them who read my post start evaluating this insane work life and try to escape from it as soon as possible.