A 32-year-old Chinese programmer who died suddenly after working intensively for years received a new work task message eight hours after his death.
News of his overwork and death trended online and struck a chord with many people.
Gao Guanghui died on a Saturday in November 2025. His wife, who used the pseudonym Li, said that he woke up early that day saying he felt unwell, needed to sit down and “do some work while he was at it”.
Soon he felt more unwell, convulsed and passed out en route to the hospital.
The Guangdong Second Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital pronounced Gao dead that afternoon. The cause of his death was a sudden heart attack, which could have been the result of overwork.
Li said Gao accessed his company’s work system five times on the day of his death. His chat app account was added to a work group while he was being rescued. Eight hours after his death, he was given an urgent work task.
She said on the weekdays ahead of his death he got home every day after 9.30pm.
Li said this was normal after he was promoted to become a team leader in 2021. She showed a heartbreaking chat record with him, in which she messaged him to leave work and come home frequently after 9pm.
Gao refused to leave work early or take leave, saying the workload was too heavy and that he should work alongside his team members.
“If I could turn back time, I would force him to quit his work,” Li said.
What saddened the online community even more was Gao had led a difficult life since childhood.
As a child who migrated to Guangzhou in Guangdong province, southern China from central China’s Henan province with his parents, Gao used to collect rubbish on the street in exchange for pocket money.
While studying at a software college, he worked on part-time jobs to ease his financial burdens.
He married his schoolmate and they never had children.
As a 16-year-old, he wrote in his diary: “My destiny and difficulties push me to grow up. I need to work hard and harder.”
Following Gao’s death, his widow received condolences from friends and classmates.
One of them shared a story about how Gao once chased and apprehended a bag thief with his classmates, a tale his wife initially thought was a boast.
However, classmates confirmed its truth and even shared photos of the incident.
In China, technology companies are notorious for their harsh work cultures, characterised by ‘996’ time, working from 9am to 9pm, six days a week.
Despite China’s labour law stipulating that employees should not work more than eight hours a day and 44 hours a week, it was not well enforced.
On mainland social media, many people said it was hard to find jobs that allow two days off a week.
A 2021 report by the World Health Organization indicates that working long hours resulted in a 42 per cent increase in deaths from heart disease.
The Human Resources and Social Security Bureau that manages Gao’s company said they are investigating the case.
Many online commenters said they saw themselves in Gao and called for reforms to China’s work culture.
“It is so sad that he worked until the last moment of his life. No job is worth that,” one person said.
“This responsible man can finally get some rest,” said another.
“A company that can only profit from its employees working overtime should just go bankrupt,” said a third.