過勞死——加班“工作狂”，問你敢不敢？

The “work hard， party harder” idiom has shifted into “party hard， work harder” gear. So that young executives who coop themselves up in their stale-aired office 1）cubicles for hours on end have started， by default， to get a buzz from overwork. Working late is fashionable and indicates a nonstop brain， handy utilizing of 2）insomnia and an addiction to meeting deadlines. So that the excuse of not being able to make it somewhere for personal purposes because of work is met with furious nods. It is now considered cool to hang out at the office.

What it does to one’s social life， food habits and vital organs though is not pretty.

Pradnya Paramita， who worked as a copywriter at US-based 3）MNC 4）Young Rubicam， died in December last year at the age of 27. A winner of national awards for her output in advertising， this is what she tweeted before she went into a coma： “30 hours of working and still going strooong.”

Moritz Erhardt， a 21-year-old intern with 5）Merrill Lynch， reportedly succumbed to an 6）epileptic seizure in his London home after a 72-hour shift in August. A 24-year-old man employed with 7）Ogilvy Mather in China—said to be putting in overtime most nights—collapsed at work from a heart attack in May.

These sad stories point to one of the truer truths in modern times： the human body is not designed to handle too much work. Stress， both mental and physical， coupled with any other 8）miscellaneous stress of the moment， including financial and domestic， wreaks havoc on the body’s ability to cope.

We witness this during exam times at school or college； how the bright ones， the ones singled out for future championships and scholarships， don’t make it in the end. How， when the actual time comes， they cannot perform. Apart from general anxiety， there are also the all-nighters， the studying round the clock， the 24/7 alertness that take their toll.

If you make it out of the rigorous academic 9）rigmarole then more 10）carousels await. Walking the career catwalk takes up all of your body， all of your mind. You start off trying to look busy and end up just plain busy.

Perhaps there is a ban on 11）lethargy， loafing around， twiddling thumbs， or stopping to smell the roses. Around two decades ago， vacations had finally begun to make sense to the average middleclass Indian. Soon he started to arrange meditation sessions and massage getaways， in a bid to soothe his soul and straighten his spine. The whole “eat pray love” thing made sense； he discovered the package tour.

But then he realized that others toiled and got ahead while he slept， that it was not staying in but staying away from the work environment that gave him the 12）ulcers. He needed to be where the action is. Or， he feared， he’d become a has-been before his time. So here he is， lining up like an urban 13）Oliver Twist， asking for more work， please.

To be worked to the bone， ah， that is today’s 14）yuppie dream. The wolves of Wall Street know what they are about. So that even relaxation is 15）regimented， all planned and booked and taken into account.

Striving for promotions and senior positions is all fine and good， but make sure there is a you to promote. No one gets out of life alive， but there is no bar on getting out of work alive.

那句流行習(xí)語“努力工作，更拼命玩樂”已然調(diào)整成“努力玩樂，更拼命工作”了。于是，年輕高管們長時間把自己關(guān)在空氣悶憋的辦公室隔間里，別無選擇地，開始加班成癮。工作到夜深成為了時尚，彰顯自己時刻運轉(zhuǎn)的大腦，對失眠的善加利用，限時急趕的習(xí)性。于是，以工作為由無法抽身參加個人活動，獲得的回應(yīng)是點頭怒贊。如今，在辦公室混才叫夠“酷”。

然而這種做法對個人的社交生活、飲食習(xí)慣和重要器官來說卻不是什么好事。

普萊雅·帕拉米塔，曾在一家名叫揚雅廣告的美國跨國公司擔(dān)任廣告文案，她在去年12月猝死，年僅27歲。廣告作品曾獲得全國性獎項的她，在陷入昏迷前發(fā)了這么一條推特微博：“連續(xù)工作了30個小時，依然拼勁十足。”

莫里茨·艾哈特，一位在美林證券工作的21歲實習(xí)生，據(jù)報道稱八月份在連續(xù)工作了長達72小時后，最終在他倫敦的家中癲癇發(fā)作身亡。一名在奧美中國分公司工作的24歲男子——據(jù)說在大多數(shù)晚上都被迫加班——五月份的某天在工作中因心臟病發(fā)作而去世。

這些悲劇指出了現(xiàn)代社會中眾多更為真實的真相中的一個：人類的身體無法適應(yīng)過量的工作。壓力，身心兩方面，再加上當(dāng)下其它各種壓力，包括來自經(jīng)濟和家庭的，會對人體的應(yīng)對能力造成嚴(yán)重破壞。

學(xué)校或大學(xué)的考試期間，我們可以看見大量例子；那些為將來的錦標(biāo)賽和獎學(xué)金而選拔出來的聰明學(xué)生為何沒法在最后時刻取得成功。為何，當(dāng)真正的時刻來臨時，他們無法發(fā)揮正常水平。……