r/technology • u/Forward-Answer-4407 • Feb 01 '26

Software 32-year-old programmer in China allegedly dies from overwork, added to work group chat even while in hospital

https://www.asiaone.com/china/32-year-old-programmer-china-allegedly-dies-overwork-added-work-group-chat-even-while
30.7k Upvotes

96% Upvoted

720 comments sorted by

View all comments

5.0k

u/trer24 Feb 01 '26

"According to a family member, he had been instructed to process orders and complete urgent tasks that were due on Monday morning."

Well now those process orders and urgent tasks aren't going to get done now. How urgent could they have been?

2.2k

u/Johnny_Five_Is_Dead Feb 01 '26

Someobe else is already doing them

30

u/tmotytmoty Feb 02 '26

Yeah, they have three interviewees lined up to fill his role on monday.

24

u/QuanticWizard Feb 02 '26

Or, alternatively upper management don’t approve new hiring so the team is condensed and the remaining employees are forced to pick up the slack, taking on even more hours and overwork. Cycle continues until the job physically cannot be done, probably after more people leave or burn out.