I am someone who rarely takes leave. Even in the past when I had a fever, cold, or menstrual cramps, I would still go to work as usual. Because for me, taking a day off is never as simple as just missing one day of work. Given the nature of my job in production control, the tasks at hand won't automatically pause just because you take a day off; many things will continue to progress. So taking a day off often means that upon returning the next day, you have to spend half a day or more catching up on the accumulated work from the previous day. Over time, I got used to not taking leave.
Until I entered the electronics industry, the intense work pressure started causing clear physical and mental reactions. Even once, the day before returning from Lunar New Year break, I suddenly broke out in hives all over my body—it was so itchy and painful that it was unbearable. That's when I slowly realized that my body couldn't always keep up with my sense of responsibility.
I started learning to rest and accepting something I used to find hard to accept: sometimes I really do need to take leave.
Later, when I switched to the metal furniture industry, I gained another perspective on overtime.
In the electronics industry, weekday overtime at least allowed the option of overtime pay or compensatory time off; but in the metal furniture industry, there was no overtime pay or compensatory leave for weekday overtime—only holiday overtime offered compensatory leave. At the beginning, I still thought that if the work wasn't finished, I'd just stay longer; getting the job done was more important.
But after quitting and looking for a new job, I started rethinking this.
It's not that I can't work overtime. In fact, I still know that if the work really requires it, I can cooperate. In the past, I would even proactively stay late, come in on holidays, or sacrifice my rest time to get things done properly. But now I feel that if someone is willing to give their time to the company, that time should receive corresponding compensation in return.
It can be overtime pay or reasonable compensatory leave. The key isn't which one you get, but that this effort isn't taken for granted.
Especially for someone like me with a strong sense of responsibility—even while learning not to take everything on myself—it's hard to suddenly become the type who leaves the moment it's time and says "I'll deal with the rest tomorrow." If work really demands it, I'm still likely to want to finish things. So what I care about more now isn't whether the company can have zero overtime, but whether there's a reasonable system for overtime and whether it's temporary.
I can understand occasional overtime during peak order periods; if a project has an urgent deadline and everyone needs to pitch in to finish, I can cooperate too. But if the normal workload can only be maintained by employees constantly sacrificing their off-hours, then the issue probably isn't whether employees are willing to work hard—it's that staffing or work arrangements themselves need to be reexamined.
In the past, I easily saw "willingness to work overtime" as a measure of someone's sense of responsibility. Now I feel that an individual being willing to work overtime shows responsibility; the company being willing to provide reasonable compensation shows good systems. Only when both sides do their part can it be a work relationship that lasts.
I'm still learning how not to bring work into my personal life, how to allow myself to rest when I'm tired, and how to accept that not everything has to be finished today. But I've also started to understand that resting isn't laziness, and overtime shouldn't become a default obligation.
I can work seriously and cooperate during busy periods. I can go the extra mile when the company needs it. But I also hope the company knows that the extra step I take is my contribution, not something the company is inherently entitled to.
Perhaps this is what my redefined version of "working hard" looks like now—not refusing to put in effort, but no longer consuming myself unconditionally; not refusing overtime, but hoping it comes with proper rewards; not nitpicking every little thing, but starting to recognize that my time has value too.
What truly makes a job last has never been employees constantly burning themselves out—it's both sides being willing to make the effort reciprocal. I can work hard, but I also hope my efforts are worth it. That's the real source of motivation for a corporate slave to work diligently.