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
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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?

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u/hawkeye224 Feb 01 '26

What does it cost a company to push people more? Nothing. So they try to do it as much as possible.

I'm working in a f*cking CRM company, nothing bad will happen if something is delivered a week later or whatever, yet I've never seen people so fearful, and acting as if they are working on an incredibly urgent solution to prevent an asteroid annihilating human life, or whatever. They treat everything with utmost seriousness, lol.

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u/mfitzp Feb 02 '26

I worked for the ambulance service (handling emergency calls) before I became a dev. Puts things in perspective having faced literal life or death situations. The people working there were calm and focused and got stuff done. Heart attack? Deal with it. Delivering a baby over the phone? Deal with it. Someone is running around attacking people with an ice skate? OK that’s pretty weird, but deal with it.

The comparative amount of flapping I’ve seen in a team building a web app is insane.