Daily Lessons from Life 21 August 2013 - Bank intern, 21, dies after working 3 nights in a row

2 good news for tonight: 1. a friend of my daughter won the FINAL ONE talent contest tonight! Told her she sung well when I first met her at a function when she was in secondary 3 or 4!; 2. met up with long time friends whom I had been trying to get together after many failed attempts tonight for dinner. Am very happy with this! Simple joy!! :-) "Bank intern, 21, dies after working 3 nights in a row - AsiaOne Aug 21, 2013 A 21-year-old intern at the Bank of America in London died last week, sparking online speculation that he had been overworked prior to his death. Moritz Erhadt, a German, was found dead in his apartment shower and is believed to have suffered a seizure, Daily Mail reported. It is also believed that the investment banking intern had worked through the night till 6am for 3 nights in a row. In another report by Huffington Post, a Bank of America spokesman described Erhadtz as "an outstanding student." "He was popular amongst his peers and was a highly diligent intern at our company with a promising future," the spokesman was reported as saying. While rumours about the cause of his death are rife, the bank said that the case is still being investigated and the cause has not yet been ascertained. In May, a Chinese employee at advertising firm Ogilvy & Mather's Shanghai office suffered a heart attack." Condolences to the family of the young man. It is way too early for a promising life to be snuffed out just like that. Lessons for me are: 1. there is an unwritten rule in such high power industry that pay handsomely that interns want to impress, no, super impress, their potential fully time employers while they are doing their internship. If it follows the normal internship that I am aware of, this type of internship is DEFINITELY not the type that SOME companies in S'pore do: getting the interns to do manual paper filing and photocopying type of work. These interns are mainly graduate school students doing their MBA and are asked to put their learning to work as interns; 2. while working hard and overextending the physical limits and sometimes unaware of some of the hidden or unknown physical weaknesses can let to such a sudden death. Especially if heart attack is involved. So we are not sure what exactly happened to the young man but hopefully the coroner's report will provide some lights and closure for the family. It is way too painful to lost someone dear suddenly. And so young; 3. while there are other similar cases of young people dying on the jobs suddenly, it is still, by and large, a very small percentage. Yes. A life lost is one too many. At the same time, there is a need to look at it rationally. Will this death helps to get companies with high pressure and high stake internship practice to change? Hopefully it will. At least for the next 6 months before memories fade and the need to be 'better, faster and cheaper' takes over again! That is a possibility but will be a very sad day for all working folks. To die on the job, except for those who risk their lives daily in the line of duties like police, soldier, fire-fighters, miners, etc, is NO an honour!