We see this here in the U.S. as well (and I’m sure in other countries, Japan’s “salaryman” culture comes to mind.). It’s far more industry-specific though.

There are two things to consider:

- when technical ability amongst competitors is high across the board those become “table stakes” and the competition shifts to social signaling, i.e. who can appear to be the most committed? Examples are: Who can show up to work earlier and leave later? Who will respond to texts the fastest? In an environment with an unrestrained management there will be no limits and can become very toxic.

- Individuals have different stress tolerance. Hyper-competitive environments weed out those who are less adept at managing the stress, meaning that new “untested” individuals learn the hard way just how bad it can be, sometimes with very bad results. While stress tolerance can be increased in individuals it’s not limitless, so ultimately responsibility lies with management to set hard limits on what is within bounds.